GOLDEN, Colo. – Oredigger right-handed pitcher Kevin Zapanta put together a record-breaking performance on Sunday which sparked the Colorado School of Mines Baseball team to a doubleheader sweep of Adams State and a series win thanks to victories of 6-2 and 9-3 at Jim Darden Field.
 
Zapanta (7-2) started game one of the day and proceeded to break the program's single-game strikeouts record by whiffing 15 in 7.2 innings of work. He surrendered just two runs on five hits with one walk. Zachary Kriethe (4) came in behind and produced 1.1 innings of flawless relief featuring three strikeouts for the save. Game two saw Ben Schoneman toss 3.2 innings of two-run, four-hit baseball with five strikeouts in the start, but he did not factor in the decision. Kriethe (4-3) appeared in relief again and earned the win behind 1.1 flawless innings out of the bullpen. He struck out two. Nash Neff closed it out by striking out four while giving up just one run on three hits with one walk over the course of 2.0 innings.
 
Luke Folsom served as the tip of the spear on offense. He closed the doubleheader batting .833 thanks to a 5-for-6 day featuring four doubles, three RBI and two walks in two starts at third base. Wayne Moeck also proved efficient on offense in two starts in center field as evidenced by a .500 average including one run on one double and three walks. Keene Tanaka carried a big bat and smashed the first home run of his career, finishing 3-for-8 on the day while scoring two runs with one RBI. Also on the long list of notable offensive performances were I-Ly Hsue, Mason Andrews and Adam Houghtaling. Hsue scored three times on four hits and had a double with two RBI. Andrews laced two doubles and scored four times while driving in one. Hoghtaling drove in three and scored once. He notched a double as well. Taylor White and Caden Bonds combined for four runs as well. White added two RBI for good measure.
 
Mines (29-16, 14-14 RMAC) earned both victories with production on offense and defense. The Oredigger bats converted at a .397 clip. Their arms combined for a 2.81 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 16.0 innings of baseball. Adams State (8-34, 5-23 RMAC) not only struck out 29 times but also committed three errors in the field. Overall, the Grizzlies hit just .207 for the day and had just two hits for extra bases. Mines emerged from the doubleheader with two clean sheets on defense and also slugged .603 thanks to 10 doubles and one home run. Sunday's two wins all but clinched a berth in the RMAC Tournament for the Orediggers.
 
GAME ONE: Mines 6, Adams State 2
Timely hitting and miscues by the Grizzlies afforded the Orediggers a fast start as they jumped ahead 3-0 after two innings. Hsue started the scoring by coming across the plate on a passed ball. White also drove in Houghtaling in the first and Houghtaling plated Andrews in the second. After that, it was mostly Zapanta and Mines' defense producing the highlights. Two strikeouts in the first, one in the second and two more in the third carried a no-hit bid into the fourth inning. Even though ASU broke up the bid and the shutout, Zapanta stilled fanned two more to keep Mines at a 3-1 margin. Houghtaling's sacrifice fly in the home half of the fourth offset the lone run for Adams State.
 
Zapanta continued to roll, striking out two in the fifth, the side in the sixth and two in the seventh to tie the previous record of 14 strikeouts in one game. He broke the record against the leadoff hitter in the eighth before eventually handing the ball off to Kriethe. One more run scored for ASU to make it 4-2, but Kriethe limited the damage with a strikeout of his own. Run support finally arrived in the bottom of the eighth inning by way of Tanaka's leadoff, solo shot to left-center field. Folsom doubled in Hsue to make the final tally. Kriethe made sure of it with a 1-2-3 ninth frame including two strikeouts of the final two Grizzly batters.
 
GAME TWO: Mines 9, Adams State 3
Even though the Grizzlies scored one run in their first turn on offense, Schoneman still picked up where Zapanta left off. He fanned two in the first, two in the second and retired the side in order in the third. Meanwhile, the Oredigger bats chipped away at ASU's defense. Toby Scoles made his final appearance at Jim Darden Field with a game-tying single that scored White. Folsom gave Mines the 2-1 lead with a RBI double to bring in Andrews one inning later in the third. Then, Schoneman ran into trouble in the fourth as Adams State tied the game, but Kriethe returned from the bullpen and kept it 2-2 with yet another strikeout.
 
The very next frame made all the difference. Three batters up and three batters down in the top half led to five runs on five hits with one Grizzly error mixed in in the bottom of the fifth. White drove in Moeck, Hsue forced an error to score White, Andrews plated Hsue and Houghtaling capped it by bringing Andrews in to score on a single. The 9-3 lead was all the home team needed. Neff came out for the sixth and seventh, worked through one earned run to finish the game with four strikeouts including three in the sixth. Folsom added another notable play on the final at-bat of the game as Adams State sent a hard-hit ball towards the hot corner which Folsom seemingly gloved with ease and sent to Houghtaling at first to close out the victory.
 
NOTABLES
- Since 2013, Mines is 31-8 when playing Adams State. The Orediggers haven't dropped a series to the Grizzlies since 2015. The only split during that span was 1-1 affair during the COVID-19 effected 2021 season.
- The previous single-game strikeout record was 14 set by Matt Gilbreath against York College on Feb. 14, 2004 – nearly 20 years ago.
- Zapanta's outing on Sunday moved him to 74 strikeouts for the season which currently ranks #6 in Mines' history. It also marked the longest outing in terms of outs recorded in his career.
- Folsom recorded two doubles in each game on Sunday which pushed him to 24 for the season. That ranks #2 in program history.
- Additionally, Folsom's .422 season batting average ranks #5 in the RMAC this season. He's also #1 in the league in doubles by a margin of six and ranks top-10 in four other offensive categories.
- Moeck's three walks in the doubleheader gave him 30 in 2022. He needs five free passes to tie the program's single-season record and six to break it.
- Kriethe finished Sunday's twin bill with two appearances resulting in a 0.00 ERA over 2.2 innings of work with zero runs, zero walks, zero hit batters and five strikeouts.
- Coach Bales holds an overall record of 91-57 in his fourth season as the head coach at Mines.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Next weekend, the Orediggers close the 2022 regular season with a pair of doubleheaders at UCCS on Friday and Saturday. Live stats and video on the RMAC Network will be offered for free at www.minesathletics.com.
 
Fans can follow Mines baseball on Twitter at @OrediggersBSB. They can also follow all of Mines Athletics on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @MinesAthletics, and online at www.minesathletics.com.