DENVER, Colo. – The Colorado School of Mines Baseball team hit a total of seven home runs across two games on Sunday which powered wins of 18-6 and 7-6 in a doubleheader at MSU Denver.
 
Mines' power plant was fueled by the bats of Mason Andrews and Tyler Pina. Andrews hit .600 for the day and finished with five runs on six hits including a double and two home runs with four RBI. Pina batted .600 as well, scoring two runs on three hits with one double, two home runs and four RBI. I-Ly Hsue, Luke Folsom, and Canon Humphreys hit home runs as well. Folsom's long ball fueled a day featuring five RBI. Jackson Woolwine did his part by providing three doubles on a 5-for-9 day. Trent Nielsen and Humphreys turned in four RBI apiece. Woolwine and Folsom came across the plate four times each. Andrews, Woolwine, and Evan Bilter were all 2-for-2 on the base paths.
 
On the mound, Folsom (5-1) started game one and earned the win thanks to eight innings of work which resulted in six runs (five earned) on 12 hits with two strikeouts and one walk. Ben Schoneman started game two but did not factor in the decision after giving up five runs on three hits across 3.1 innings. Schoneman had three strikeouts and two walks. Jackson Bakovich (6-5) was the winning pitcher in game two after tossing 4.2 innings of one-run relief. He surrendered six hits while striking out three and walking one. Marcus Lee (2) notched the save to end the day. He spun one frame which included zero runs, zero hits, zero walks, one strikeout, and one hit batter. Gray St. Amant closed out game one with a one-hit, shutout inning of work.
 
As a team, Mines (23-17, 16-10 RMAC) combined for a .370 batting average and a .728 slugging percentage thanks to 30 hits including eight doubles and seven home runs. MSU Denver (27-21, 18-12 RMAC) entered the day hitting .344 as team, ranking #6 in the nation. The Orediggers' pitching staff limited the Roadrunners to a .297 average and .568 slugging on two doubles and six home runs. Mines finished the day with a staff ERA of 5.50 compared to a 12.00 mark for MSU Denver. The Roadrunners had been averaging over 3.00 doubles, nearly 2.0 home runs, and more than 10 runs per game with a combined slugging percentage of .601 coming into the series openers. All of those numbers ranked top-10 in the nation prior to Sunday. Additionally, across two games, Mines committed two errors in the field resulting in one unearned run. MSU Denver had three fielding errors impacting one run.
 
GAME ONE: Mines 18, MSU Denver 6
The visitors started the game with a bang, scoring five runs on four hits in the opening frame. Humphrey's three-run home run capped the outburst. MSU Denver quickly responded with four runs on four hits with one error in the bottom of the first inning. After that, it was all Orediggers. Andrews hit a two-run home run in the top of the second with Hsue on base. Folsom smacked a three-run blast in the top of the fourth which plated Woolwine and Andrews. Another zero on the scoreboard in the home half of the inning afforded Mines a 10-4 lead after four complete.
 
Back-to-back Roadrunner home runs in the fifth inning gave a glimmer of life to the home team. However, in the very next frame, Pina hammered a three-run blast as part of six-run, three-hit surge. Nielsen plated Folsom in the seventh. Nielsen's double also helped Mines score one run in the ninth. Meanwhile, Folsom and the Oredigger defense posted zeros in the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth to close out a full-length, 12-run victory.
 
GAME TWO: Mines 7, MSU Denver 6 (9 innings)
Mines immediately picked up where it had left off, scoring one in the first and another in the second for a 2-0 lead in the second game of the day. The second run was off a solo home run from Pina. The third and the fourth frames featured five-run rally for the Roadrunners. Two of the five MSU Denver runs were solo bombs. The Orediggers rallied behind Hsue's two-run blast in the fifth inning. That made the score 5-4 in favor of the home team. Doubles from Woolwine and Bilter sandwiched Folsom's one-run single in the sixth frame which pushed Mines to a 6-5 lead. A leadoff home run by Gavin Schmeh in the bottom of the sixth tied the game at six and eventually forced extra innings.
 
The first round of extra action saw the Orediggers load the bases before a groundball double play kept the score at 6-6. Bakovich worked around a leadoff single from the hottest hitter in the RMAC and kept MSU Denver off the board despite a two-out walk. Keene Tanaka singled in the eighth. He represented the only baserunner for either team in that frame. Then, Andrews' one-out bomb in the ninth broke the silence. Mines added two more baserunners but no more runs. It didn't matter because Lee came in and worked a groundball, strikeout, and popup to end the game.
 
NOTABLES
- Since 2009, Mines sits 36-36 against MSU Denver.
- The Orediggers' wins on Sunday snapped the Roadrunners' five-game win streak. The home team was 13-3 coming into the series.
- With two home runs to start the series, Andrews moved into a tie with Derek Daly (2017-20) for #3 on Mines' all-time list.
- Andrews is also tied with Mikey Gangwish (2019) and Luke Folsom (2022) for #6 on the Orediggers' all-time, single-season home runs list. He has 15 home runs in 30 games in 2024.
- Additionally, Andrews shot into a tie with Logan Smith (2017) for runs scored in a single season in program history. He has scored 58 runs this year.
- Hsue moved into a tie with Mikey Gangwish (2016-19) at #6 in the program record book after hitting the 45th double of his career.
- Folsom's home run was his seventh of the season and 28th of his career, tying him with Jace Selsor at #7 for all-time home runs.
- Hsue's long ball gave him 10 for the year and 21 in his career which is tied with Joe Popp and Anthony Siderius for #11 in program history.
- Pina hit his fourth and fifth bombs of 2024.
- Humphrey's tank was his second in an Oredigger uniform.
- Thanks to four RBI on Sunday, Folsom took over #4 on Mines' all-time list, moving ahead of Anthony Siderius, Terry Packer, Nate Olinger, and Adam Marwitz.
- Two stolen bases pushed Woolwine to #4 on the program's single-season list.
- Hsue touts exactly 200 hits in his collegiate career.
- Lee leads Mines in saves in 2024 with two. He has five in his career thanks to 80 strikeouts in 110 innings of work.
- Andrews came just a triple short of the cycle in game one on Sunday.
- Bakovich's win on the mound ties him for #8 for most wins in a season in program history.
- Oredigger Head Coach Robby Bales is 140-102 in his sixth season leading Mines.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
The Orediggers close their series with MSU Denver on Monday, playing a doubleheader starting at 12 p.m. in downtown Denver. Live stats and video will be offered 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.