EMPORIA, Kan. – Oredigger redshirt sophomore
Carter Gorling pitched the Colorado School of Mines Baseball team to its first win of the 2024 season on Saturday in a 10-1 victory to close out the series at Emporia State. The home team won the front end of Saturday's doubleheader by a score of 2-0.
Gorling's (1-0) performance featured one run (zero earned) on four hits with seven strikeouts compared to one walk across 5.0 innings.
Marcus Lee,
Peter Lynch,
Henry Novicki, and
Jackson Kay provided shutout relief while combining for five more strikeouts and zero walks to close out the win.
Alex Honeyman (0-2) was the only other Mines pitcher in action on Saturday. He started the first game of the doubleheader (third of the series) and suffered a tough-luck loss despite a complete-game effort. Honeyman's final resume on the mound included two runs on four hits with five walks and three strikeouts.
At the plate,
Jackson Woolwine kept the Orediggers from being no-hit in game one thanks to a leadoff double. He added one hit, two RBI, and one run in the finale.
Canon Humphreys was 3-for-4 and had one RBI in game two while batting ninth for the visitors.
Wayne Moeck,
Luke Folsom,
Ben Leiphart,
Tyler Hummel, and
Keene Tanaka all recorded multiple hits.
Tyler Pina,
Mason Andrews, and Hummel each scored two runs. Hummel and Woolwine combined for five RBI. Hummel's game-two summary included two runs on two hits with three RBI. Moeck also notched a stolen base while Leiphart walked twice.
The Orediggers (1-5) bounced back from being one-hit in Saturday's opener by batting .372 in the final game. Emporia State (5-2) only recorded 12 hits across 16 innings of baseball to end the series. Ian Lanik (1-0) was the Hornets' winning pitcher with a complete-game, one-hit, shutout effort. Overall, Mines' pitching staff combined to fan 15 batters while walking six. The home team's pitchers had 16 strikeouts and six walks. Four errors doomed ESU in the series finale after a clean sheet on the front end. The Orediggers also had a 1.000 fielding percentage to start the day before committing two errors in game two.
GAME ONE: Emporia State 2, Mines 0
Woolwine started the day by hitting a double on the first pitch he saw. It marked the Orediggers' only offense in the game outside of Moeck's walk in the second inning. On defense, Honeyman worked around a walk in the first inning, a walk and single in the second inning, and another walk in the third inning to keep the shutout going. He walked another batter in the fourth frame before striking out the side in order in the bottom of the fifth. However, the Hornets ground out two runs on two hits and two walks (one intentional) in the sixth. That made the final tally as Mines went 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh.
GAME TWO: Mines 10, Emporia State 1
The Orediggers, a team typically known for power hitting and high slugging percentages, flipped the script in game two and played some small-ball. The result was 10 runs on 16 hits, and none of those hits were for extra bases. Mines also laid down five bunts and benefited from four Hornets' errors. Andrews and Hummel started the scoring in the second inning thanks to the bats of Tanaka and Woolwine and one ESU fielding error. Pina, Leiphart, and Andrews all came across home plate in the third inning with Andrews, Hummel, and Humphreys all notching RBI. That made the score 5-1 after Emporia State took advantage of an Oredigger error for one run in the bottom of the second inning. Woolwine plated Hummel top of five. Folsom scored on an error top of six. Woolwine, Pina, and Moeck made it a three-run seventh due to another ESU error. That accounted for all the offense.
In the field, Gorling and the Orediggers shrugged off a first-inning single and limited the Hornets to one run despite two hits and an error in the second frame. Emporia State's third-inning single combined with another Mines error yielded no offense after Gorling fanned the third out. Two strikeouts in the fourth and two more in the fifth put a cherry on top of Gorling's cake. Lee handled the sixth with a strikeout and a Humphreys-Hummel-Leiphart double play. Then, Lee and Lynch teamed up for a shutout seventh. Novicki retired the home half of the eighth inning in order. Kay came on in the ninth and ended the game with back-to-back strikeouts.
NOTABLES
- Mines' win on Saturday marked its first-ever over Emporia State.
- Gorling earned the first victory of his career on the mound.
- Woolwine now boasts 17 doubles in his collegiate career.
- Novicki's eighth-inning appearance was his Oredigger debut after playing four years at NCAA Division I Bucknell.
- Honeyman notched the first complete game of his career.
- So far this season, the Oredigger pitching staff has combined to strike out 51 batters with just 23 walks in in 47.1 innings pitched.
- Oredigger Head Coach
Robby Bales is 118-90 in his sixth season leading Mines.
WHAT'S NEXT
Mines heads to California next weekend. The Orediggers will play at Cal State San Marcos on Friday and Saturday. They'll close the trip with a doubleheader at Concordia Irvine on Monday, Feb. 19. A full preview and live coverage information will be available late next week at www.minesathletics.com.
Fans can keep up with Mines baseball on "X" (formerly Twitter) and Instagram at @OrediggersBSB. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, "X" and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.
