Mines (24-18, 20-14) at MSU Denver (35-13, 28-8) – Sunday, 12 p.m. (DH) – Denver, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]
Mines (24-18, 20-14) at MSU Denver (35-13, 28-8) – Monday, 12 p.m. (DH) – Denver, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]

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ON THE ROAD AGAIN (SORT OF)
Two weeks remain in the regular season as the Colorado School of Mines softball looks to improve their postseason standing over their final eight games starting this weekend when they head back to the Assembly Athletic Complex Sunday and Monday for their final Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference series of the season against MSU Denver.
 
SCHEDULE ADVISORY
Due to inclement weather in the forecast for Saturday, this weekend's series has been shifted to Sunday-Monday at the Assembly Athletic Complex in downtown Denver, with doubleheaders each day starting at 12 p.m.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
Live coverage of this weekend's games will include live stats and streaming on the RMAC Network. All links can be found on minesathletics.com.
 
AT THE HELM
Mike Coutts enters his third season at the helm of the Orediggers and owns an overall record of 65-74 with a mark of 58-50 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play and is coming off his first 20-win season in Golden in 2023. He oversaw a nine-win improvement overall and an eight-win improvement from year one to year two and guided the Orediggers to an appearance in last season's RMAC Tournament. Before arriving at Mines, Coutts was the head coach of the softball program at Maine for six seasons, where he posted a 94-129 record with two 20-win seasons in 2016 and 2018.
 
IN THE POLLS
Mines was tabbed to finish fifth the RMAC Preseason Coaches Poll this season, up two places from their projected result last season of seventh. Defending RMAC champions Colorado Christian were picked to repeat this season with eight first-place votes followed by MSU Denver and Colorado Mesa, who each earned a pair of first-place ballots and were separated by just one point in the poll. Regis checked in just ahead of Mines in fourth with UCCS in sixth with CSU Pueblo and Chadron State in seventh and eighth. Fort Lewis and New Mexico Highlands each earned 37 points to finish tied for ninth in the standings while Adams State and Black Hills State each earned 18 points to finish tied for 11th.
 
WEEK 10 RECAP
Mines was back home last weekend at Joe Coors, Jr. Softball Field to play host to UCCS and kept their home field success in 2024 going, making a clean sweep of the Mountain Lions by twin scores of 5-4 Saturday and results of 9-2 and 11-5 Sunday.
 
Saturday the Orediggers held leads late in each game, but rallies by the Mountain Lions in seventh inning in game one and from the fourth through the sixth in game two saw things evened up at 4-4 before the Orediggers walked things off in near identical fashion in both games, first taking the opener on a bunt single by Kendall Aragon that saw an errant throw into right field and allowed Hannah Roberts to score in the seventh while Kellan Ton did something nearly identical the eighth inning of game two, slapping a 3-2 slow roller to third and legging out the infield single as the throw was again wide of first and allowed Cassidy Chvatal to score.
 
Sunday was a different tune as the opener ended in five innings due to the eight-run rule after Cassidy Chvatal belted a gargantuan three-run home run that hooked just inside the left field foul pole as Sadriena Rodriguez picked up her third win in as many games in the circle. In the finale, it was a slugfest early as both teams held a lead, but Allison Westbrook's five-plus innings of relief carried the Orediggers to a sweep as the offense pounded out 11 runs with six different players recording multi-hit performances, highlighted by Kendall Aragon who made two trips around the bases on the day with a little league home run in each game after singles into the outfield followed by errors and Chvatal who homered for the second time on the afternoon with a solo shot in the third inning.
 
THE QUEEN REGAINS HER CROWN
Once again one of the best arms in the RMAC this season, Sadriena Rodriguez was finally recognized for her efforts in the circle this week as Tuesday she was named RMAC Pitcher of the Week for the first time this season and fourth time in her career.
 
Rodriguez was instrumental in the Orediggers' four-game sweep of UCCS at home over the weekend. In the series opener Saturday, Rodriguez went the distance with a 10-strikeout complete game effort and allowed seven hits while all four runs that scored were unearned as part of a walk-off 5-4 win. Then in game two Saturday, she came back in relief in extra innings, inheriting the go-ahead runner at second base and retiring all three batters she faced, adding two more strikeouts and picking up her second win of the day on another 5-4 walk-off. Sunday Rodriguez started game one and showed no signs of fatigue, allowing just one earned run on three hits over five innings with a strikeout and relying on her offense and defense to do the job as part of a run-rule shortened 9-1 win. For the series, she went 3-0 with a 0.54 earned run average and 13 strikeouts against only two walks and allowed just one earned run on 10 hits.
 
For the season, Rodriguez has now set a career high in wins and with eight games left in the regular season is 15-6 with a 2.59 ERA in 24 games with 20 starts including 12 complete games and four shutouts. In 127 innings pitched, she has struck out 97 against only 39 walks and held opponents to a .250 batting average.
 
SORTING THE STANDINGS
Two weeks remain before the RMAC Tournament as the postseason picture starts to take shape. Colorado Christian and Colorado Mesa (33-3, .917) currently lead the conference with the Cougars owning the head-to-head tiebreaker if they stay that way through the final eight games. MSU Denver (28-8, .778) is in third followed by Regis (22-12, .647) and Mines (20-14, .588) with CSU Pueblo (18-18, .500) in the sixth and final spot. Fort Lewis (12-20, .375) and UCCS (12-24, .333) are the first two teams out and would need some help to make the field, while Black Hills State (11-23, .324), New Mexico Highlands (9-25, .265), Chadron State (7-25, .219) and Adams State (3-33, .083) will be playing out the stretch and looking ahead to 2025.
 
ESTABLISHING THE RUNNING GAME
After setting a new single-season record for stolen bases in 2023, the Orediggers got off to a bit of a slow start on the base paths to begin 2024, but have been making up for lost time over the last month. Over their last 19 games, Mines has successfully stolen at least one base per game and tallied 47 acts of larceny since April 18 and only getting caught three times. In their first 22 games of the year, the Orediggers were just 8-13 when trying to gain an extra 60 feet. Headed up by Kellan Ton who is 19-19 and Sara Larson who is 13-16, nine different players have successfully logged a stolen base in 2024 and while last season's mark of 86 may be out of reach this year, Mines will give it their best shot over their final eight regular season outings and the postseason.
 
DEFENSE LEADS THE WAY
Through 42 games, Mines still remains one of the top defensive units in the RMAC, being passed by CCU for the top spot at .971 but are still fielding at a .970 clip. They have committed just 34 errors, the fewest in the RMAC this season, have 13 players with a fielding percentage better than .970 as individuals. An area of emphasis under head coach Mike Coutts, the Orediggers went from fielding .954 in his season to .963 last year and are poised to maintain that upward trend again this year.
 
MILESTONE WATCH
As the 2024 season continues on, several Orediggers have hit some significant career milestones over the past month. Sara Larson went over 100 career hits in early March while Kendall Aragon did so at the end of the month, needed less than two full seasons to hit that number.
 
Kayleigh Krueger and Sidney Wilson are both on the north side of 150 hits in their careers with the former at 170 and the latter at 181 as they both look to chase down Somoma Toot (2015-18) for 12th all-time with 182. For Krueger, she also broke through the 100 RBI plateau in her career at the end of March, becoming the 13th player in program history to hit the century mark in that category, while Wilson needs just seven more to join her as she stands at 93. Krueger also now has 36 doubles in her career, tied with Deborah Ausmus (1993-95) for 10th in program history. Wilson meanwhile has cracked the top 10 in career walks and is now in sole possession of eighth all-time with 59, passing Paige Coufal (2012-14).
 
Sadriena Rodriguez continues to climb her way up the record books in Golden in her fifth and final season in the circle. The graduate student is tied for second in career shutouts at 12 with Hallie Smith (2015-18), ranks fifth all-time in wins with 38, currently stands fourth all-time in career ERA at 2.68, is in the top 10 twice now in single-season shutouts (5, 2023; 4, 2024) and is now seventh all-time in innings pitched with 384, passing Libby Balogh (2010-11) two weeks ago and is now 16 innings away from becoming the sixth player in program history to hit that milestone and will pass Katie Kocman (2006-09) on the all-time list with 5.2 more innings. Against Fort Lewis in mid-March, she became just the fifth pitcher in program history to reach 300 career strikeouts and currently ranks fifth with 339 as she tries to track down Balogh in another category for fourth.
 
Freshman speedster Kellan Ton is now into the single-season record books as well with 19 stolen bases, tied for the fourth-most in a season with Kaleigh Starr (2009) and Renata Boyd (2022) and is now five shy of tying the single-season record of 24 held by Brinley Benson (2011) and Lauren Decker (2023) and with 8 games to go, that's not out of the realm of possibility.
 
Head coach Mike Coutts also hit a major milestone against Colorado Christian in early March, becoming the fifth-ever skipper at Mines to reach 50 career wins, joining Mark Roberts, Annie Van Wetzinga, Kristie Hawkins and Leah Glasgow.
 
CHECKING THE STAT SHEET
If the past few weeks have been any indication, it seems like there won't be much change to the lineup for the Orediggers over the final month of the season as they make their push for the postseason. Kendall Aragon is a point under .400 at the dish and is back atop the clubhouse leaderboard with 29 RBI on this season as she also leads the team with 59 hits while scoring 23 runs with five double and seven steals. Sara Larson's move to the cleanup spot in recent weeks has seen her RBI total skyrocket up to 17 as she also leads Mines with nine doubles and is second on the team with 13 steals and is batting .372. Kellan Ton is batting .370 with eight extra-base hits, 30 runs scored and 14 RBI and remains perfect on stolen bases with 19 in as many tries.
 
Sidney Wilson is batting .346 with six extra-base knocks and 26 RBI with 18 runs scored while Lexie Semeyn is batting .328 with eight doubles, a team-leading four triples and two home runs and also has 26 RBI to her credit with 24 runs scored. Kayleigh Krueger has her third-straight 20 RBI season with five extra-base knocks and is batting .280 while Cassidy Chvatal belted her fifth and sixth home runs of the season last weekend and now has 15 extra-base hits with 21 RBI and 23 runs scored with Hannah Roberts rounding out the regulars with a .267 average, six doubles, eight RBI and 17 runs scored.
 
In the circle, Sadriena Rodriguez is a 15-game winner for the first time in her career with a 15-6 record in 24 games with 20 starts and has a 2.59 ERA over 127 innings and 97 strikeouts against 39 walks with a .250 BAA. Kat Miller remains 4-5 on the season with a 3.81 ERA in 23 games with 15 starts over 75.1 innings with 26 strikeouts while Allison Westbrook is coming off one of her best weekends of the season as she's now 5-3 with a save and a 5.51 ERA in 22 appearances for 47 innings. Chvatal remains an option in the circle but last pitched against Fort Hays State in March, working 20 innings on the season in eight games while Ellen Shull has worked six innings over six appearances.
 
SCOUTING MSU DENVER
After leading the RMAC standings for the better part of a month a half, the Roadrunners have seen their season take a detour the last two weekends and find themselves on a five-game losing streak following a road split with Fort Lewis and getting swept at home by new league co-leader Colorado Mesa, being shutout twice and outscored 33-5 in those games as they face a challenging out to the season against the Orediggers and the other RMAC co-leader Colorado Christian.
 
Shelby Robb, younger sister of former Oredigger outfielder Kailey Robb, leads MSUD at the dish with a .484/.512/.735 line on the season and leads the team in hits (75), runs (50), doubles (22), RBI (50) and stolen bases (19-21) while her five home runs are good for third on the club. One of two regulars batting over .400, she's joined by Miah Hartvigsen who is batting .462 with a .524 OBP and .706 slugging with 12 doubles, seven home runs and 44 RBI.
 
Past those two, eight more Roadrunner regulars are batting above .300 headed by Genevieve Bower at .394 with 10 doubles, three home runs and 22 RBI. Hannah DiFabio leads the team with eight home runs and is batting .367 with 38 RBI and is a perfect 17-17 on stolen bases with 42 runs scored while Miki Berg is batting .365 with 13 extra-base hits (6 2B, 3 3B, 4 HR) and 33 RBI. Katie Maney has similar XBH totals (5 2B, 3 3B, 3 HR) and has driven in 24 while scoring 34 with nine steals in 10 attempts with Kami Grammerstorf batting .342 with a team-best 25 steals in as many attempts as she is batting .342 with six doubles, four triples and four home runs with 31 RBI and is tied with Robb with 51 runs scored. Two-way player and 2023 RMAC Freshman of the Year Jenna Medhus is batting .321 with eight doubles while Aaliyah Arellano rounds out the group batting .309 with 11 doubles and 21 RBI.
 
Six players for MSUD have 30 or more RBI with five mentioned above and the sixth being Jaiden Giest who is batting .276 with four doubles, two triples and five home runs. Off the bench, Adriana Bueno and Lexi Gephart are both batting over .300 with more than 45 plate appearances with the former batting .340 with three doubles and the latter posting three triples and going 10-11 on steal attempts.
 
As a team, MSU Denver leads the RMAC in steals with 101 in 107 attempts and has outscored teams 365-196 this season while hitting 106 doubles, 20 triples, and 43 home runs.
 
In the circle, Medhus leads the staff with a 3.05 ERA and is 12-1 in 21 games with eight starts for 78 innings, striking out 35 against 15 walks and posting a BAA of .298. Natalie Romero leads the way in appearances and innings pitched and is 8-4 with three saves and a 3.20 ERA in 14 starts over 27 games in 85.1 innings of work with 49 strikeouts against 46 walks and a .244 BAA Cheyenne Prieto is 5-4 with a save in 18 games with 10 starts and a 3.64 ERA and in 59.2 innings has struck out 28 while walking 33 and has a .273 BAA. Maddy Wilson rounds out the staff with a 7-2 record and a save along with a 4.49 ERA in 19 games with 12 starts for 68.2 innings with 36 strikeouts and 26 walks as opponents have hit .336 against her.
 
Defensively, the Roadrunners are fifth in the RMAC with a .960 fielding percentage and have committed 56 errors in 48 games, also the fifth-most in the league.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Mines snapped a three-game losing streak and a 3-9 stretch in the last 12 meetings with the Roadrunners last season by taking three out of four games at home, winning the first three games of the series by scores of 7-2, 7-2 and 4-3 in nine innings before missing out on a sweep by way of a 6-3 loss in the finale. The last time the teams played in Denver was in 2022 as MSUD took both games 4-3 and 6-2 as they lead the series when played downtown 15-14.
 
However, Mines does have a win on the Roadrunners' home turf this season, as they split as doubleheader with Regis back on March 18 and scored 11 runs in that contest.

ON DECK
Mines concludes the regular season at home next week April 26-27 against Adams State. Friday the Orediggers will celebrate the seniors on this year's team before hosting Family Day on Saturday.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines softball on X at @MinesSoftball and on Instagram at @mines_sb. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, X and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.