(4) Mines (29-21, 25-17) vs. (5) Regis (28-24, 24-18) – Thursday, 10 a.m. (DH) – Grand Junction, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network PPV] [Tournament Central] [Tickets]

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POSTSEASON PLAY BEGINS
With 50 regular season games now in the rear view, the Colorado School of Mines softball team now turns their attention to the postseason as they make their second consecutive appearance in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference softball championship and will begin the action Thursday morning at 10 a.m. when they take on Regis in the first game of the event.
 
FAN INFORMATION
Fans are reminded that the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference will be implementing a subscription model for all championship broadcasts. Fans will be able to purchase day passes for each day of the tournament priced at $9.95 per day. To purchase the day pass, fans will navigate to www.rmacnetwork.com and will be directed to select the institution that they are supporting through their viewership. Once the payment submission is complete, fans will have access to any RMAC championship contest available for that specific sport. Day passes will expire within 24 hours of the purchase. Tournament passes will also be available for purchase at a price of $20.
 
For technical support questions, fans may submit a support ticket with Hudl Support or email the RMAC directly (help@rmacsports.org). For further support, fans can visit the RMAC Network Help page. Additional information about the new subscription model for the postseason can found on the RMAC Website.
 
Fans are also reminded that there is no passlist for the postseason. All college students of the teams that are playing who present a valid student ID card will be admitted free of charge to all matches. Fans are encouraged to purchase advance tickets through the Hometown Fan App on their mobile device, or the RMAC Box Office on their computer, which are subject to processing fees. The only tickets that may be purchased at the venue will be cash only transactions. Adult tickets are priced at $15 dollars, while tickets for seniors and children over the age of five are priced at $10.

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 70-77 with a mark of 63-53 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.
 
WEEK 12 RECAP
After moving up their final series of the regular season to beat some bad weather Saturday, Mines was able to get all four games in and made quick work of Adams State, sweeping the Grizzlies by scores of 8-0, 9-0, 7-2 and 8-0 with three run-rule wins.
 
Game one of the series saw Sadriena Rodriguez make history, spinning the first no-hitter of her career and breaking the program record and her previous career-high of 13 strikeouts by fanning 14, including the final 10 she faced as the only blemish on her day was a walk in the third inning. Emily Rogers drove in a pair to lead the offense and a trio of bases-loaded walks in the sixth resulted in an early win.
 
Allison Westbrook toed the rubber in game two and followed up her first career shutout, spinning a four-hitter with a career-high six strikeouts and no walks while Kayleigh Krueger did some yardwork with a three-run bomb to dead center as part of an eight-run first inning that put the game out of reach early.
 
Rodriguez came back in game one Friday and started senior day off on the right foot. Despite allowing a pair of runs in the sixth inning, Cassidy Chvatal's two-run home run to straightaway center highlighted a three RBI day for her while Krueger added a two-run double in the winning effort.
 
Westbrook finished the weekend off in the circle and was backed up again by another monster first inning, with Mines scoring six to start things off before scoring two more in the fifth as seven different players drove in a run to complete the sweep, highlighted by a two-run triple from Chvatal and an RBI double by Kailey Morales before Hannah Roberts walked things off to conclude the series.
 
BRINGING HOME THE HARDWARE
Tuesday the final RMAC weekly awards were announced following a monster weekend at the dish, Cassidy Chvatal laid claim to her first-ever Player of the Week honor. The junior from Broomfield closed out her first season as the Orediggers' everyday right fielder by posting a .700/.750/1.400 line in a four-game sweep of Adams State, posting two doubles, a triple and a home run while driving in five and scoring six and hitting for the cycle over the course of Friday afternoon's doubleheader. In the series opener, Chvatal went 1-1 with a run scored and reached on a hit by pitch in an 8-0 win and followed that up with a 2-3 performance with a double and two more runs scored in a 9-0 win. Friday she posted her first three-hit game of the season, jacking a two-run home run to add to her team-leading total of eight while also doubling home a run and scoring in a 7-2 win while in the finale went 1-2 with a two-run triple and scored a further two times.
 
The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference announced its All-Conference teams and major award winners for softball Wednesday as four members of the Colorado School of Mines softball team earned accolades for their performances in 2024. Graduate student pitcher Sadriena Rodriguez headlined the Mines contingent earning First Team honors while sophomore outfielder Kendall Aragon earned Second Team laurels with freshman outfielder Kellan Ton and senior shortstop Sidney Wilson being tabbed Honorable Mention selections. Read more about the all-conference team here.
 
CAN'T TOUCH THIS
Entering last week's series against Adams State it had been more than 11 years since a Mines pitcher spun a no-hitter. Recent Mines Hall of Fame inductee Kelly Unkrich went the distance over seven innings and held New Mexico Highlands to a goose egg in the hit column in a 4-0 win and ahead of last Thursday's series opener against the Grizzlies, it had been 4,798 days since Unkrich's masterpiece. Now the counter can start anew after fifth-year lefthander Sadriena Rodriguez put on an absolute clinic against ASU, facing one over the minimum as a third-inning leadoff walk was the only thing in the way of a perfect game as she broke the Mines program record and set a career high in strikeouts, punching out 14 batters in the game including the final 10 she faced in order to record her 40th career win in as spectacular a manner as one could dream of. And while Rodriguez did get tagged for two runs in her second start of the weekend Friday, in her last four starts she has spun two shutouts and going back over her last five outings, has allowed just five runs in 31 innings of work with 32 strikeouts and five walks. The Orediggers will look for more of that this week as they embark on their postseason journey.
 
ZOOM ZOOM
For 11 seasons Brinly Benson laid claim to the single-season Mines record for stolen bases in a season with 24 before Lauren Decker joined her atop the list with 24 of her own in 2023. Those two, along with Paige Noehring in 2015 were the only three players in program history to steal 20 or more bases in a season, but a new name joined them in 2024 in her first season in a Mines uniform. Friday in the series finale against Adams State, freshman Kellan Ton set a new standard for larceny in a single season, swiping her 25th base to move atop the record book. The Texan enters the postseason with a steal in each of her last four games and 10 over her last 12. She turned in three multi-steal games and pocketed a season-high three in a win over Black Hills State to end the month of March. Already almost halfway to Renata Boyd's career record of 58, Ton is sure to give that mark a run for its money before her time in Golden comes to an end.
 
DEFENSE LEADS THE WAY
After 50 regular season games, Mines finished second in the RMAC in fielding percentage at .971 behind only Colorado Christian but edged the Cougars by one in fewest errors committed this season with 38. 15 players fielded .960 of better this season for the Orediggers, headlined by Lexie Semeyn who turned in a perfect season as the primary catcher in 2024 as she fielded 1.000 in 163 chances and led the RMAC with 10 runners caught stealing this year. 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, needing 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 178 and the latter at 187, passing Margie Cone (2006-09) for 11th all-time and now six back of Molly Thiebaut (2010-13) for 10th. 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 six more to join her as she stands at 94. Krueger also now has 37 doubles in her career, passing Deborah Ausmus (1993-95) for sole possession of 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 60, 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 now in sole possession of second in career shutouts with 43, passing Hallie Smith (2015-18), ranks fourth all-time in wins with 41 and has passed Claire Stringfellow (2017-20) as she becomes the fifth 40-game winner in school history. She currently stands fourth all-time in career ERA at 2.58, is in the top 10 twice now in single-season shutouts (5, 2023; 6, 2024) and is now fifth all-time in innings pitched with 410, passing Stringfellow again and is now the sixth pitcher to clear 400 career innings at Mines. 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 370 as after a monster weekend with 24 strikeouts against Adams State to end the regular season, she is now three behind pitching coach and former Oredigger Libby Balogh (2010-11) for fourth all-time. Speaking of a monster weekend, Rodriguez also became the first Mines pitcher in more than a decade to throw a no-hitter, doing so in the series opener against Adams State and breaking the program's single-game strikeout record in the process as she punched out 14 Grizzlies.
 
Freshman speedster Kellan Ton now owns the record for most stolen bases in a season, stealing her 25th in the series finale Friday against ASU to take over the top spot from Brinley Benson (2011) and Lauren Decker (2023).
 
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
Entering the postseason Kendall Aragon leads Mines at the dish with a .392 batting average and 32 RBI this season to go with 28 runs scored, five doubles and seven steals. Kellan Ton's 25 stolen bases rank tied for third in the RMAC this season as she's batting .357 out of the leadoff spot with five doubles, four triples and 18 RBI with a team-leading 34 runs scored. Sara Larson thrived after moving to the cleanup spot the final six weeks of the year and is batting .338 with nine doubles and a home run with 21 RBI, 19 runs scored and is second on the team with 14 steals.
 
Sidney Wilson enters the postseason batting .333 and is second on the club with 28 RBI to go with five doubles and two home runs, one of which came the last time Mines was in Grand Junction. Lexie Semeyn posted a breakout year on both sides of the ball and finished the regular season batting .311 with eight doubles, four triples and two home runs while going 5-5 on steals while Kayleigh Krueger posted a .295 average over the first 50 games and now has seven extra-base hits on the season after a double and a home run against Adams State and also has 27 RBI. Cassidy Chvatal needs two more big flies to get to 10 on the season following a two-bomb in the ASU series and now has 20 extra-base knocks featuring a team-high 10 doubles along with two triples while adding 27 RBI of her own.
 
Hannah Roberts has come on strong the last few weeks as well and has raised her average to .285 with six doubles, 19 runs and 10 RBI. Trystin Oshiro-Sano has 13 RBI and five doubles to her name as she'll play a role off the bench along with the freshmen duo of Emily Rogers (.267 AVG, HR, 6 RBI) and Sam Whisenand (.273 AVG, HR, 3-3 SB) and Kailey Morales (.186 AVG, 7 R, 7 RBI) who has three extra-base hits including a home run this season.
 
Mines pitching allowed just two runs in 23 innings of work over the weekend against ASU and posted three shutouts, led by Sadriena Rodriguez who tossed a no-hitter to open the weekend and improved to 18-7 on the year and lowered her ERA to 2.33 as she's made 24 starts in 28 appearances for 153 innings and struck out 128 against 44 walks and posted a BAA of .236. Allison Westbrook tossed the first two shutouts of her career against the Grizzlies and is now 7-5 on the year with a save and a 4.72 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 66.2 innings of work. Kat Miller is 4-5 with a save and a 3.98 ERA in 2024 with 26 strikeouts in 75.2 innings of work. Ellen Shull has made seven appearances in relief in her debut season for eight innings and has a 5.25 ERA while Chvatal has also made eight appearances in the circle for 20 innings, and despite not pitching since March 20 remains an option if needed.
 
SCOUTING REGIS
The Rangers scuffled down the stretch to end the regular season, dropping 10 of their final 12 games as they were swept by Colorado Christian and Colorado Mesa before salvaging a split with New Mexico Highlands on the final day of the regular season.
 
Offensively Regis boasts five players batting .325 or better led by Miia Campos, who is batting .410 on the season and has 13 doubles, six triples, 32 RBI and 47 runs scored to her credit. Rachel Williams follows with a .355/.482/.690 line and leads RU with 15 doubles and eight triples while also belting seven home runs while driving in 31 and scoring 40. Olivia Wick checks in batting .341 with eight doubles, seven triples and three home runs and also has 32 runs scored and leads the Rangers with 51 runs scored and 14 stolen bases. Sienna Reed sports a .339 average with 16 extra-base hits including six home runs and has 28 RBI, while Morgan Norris rounds out the group batting .329 with a team-leading 10 home runs and 54 RBI.
 
Ariana Ybarra is just under .300 at .299 with four doubles, and 15 RBI while Abby Larsen isn't far behind her at .295 with six home runs, four doubles and 29 RBI with 35 runs scored. Sydney Young rounds out the regulars for Regis batting .278 with seven doubles, eight home runs and a pair of triples to go with 35 RBI and 32 runs scored while off the bench, Jessica Isbell is batting .302 in 63 at bats with five doubles and 16 RBI. Mia Moore is 4-4 on stolen bases while Kaden Wyatt is 5-6 as those two have been first call pinch runners this season.
 
In the circle Kylie Harpman has accounted for 15 of the Rangers' 28 wins this season, sporting a 3.44 ERA and a 15-9 record in 31 games with 26 starts for 167 innings with 135 strikeouts to just 34 walks while limiting teams to a .281 average. Ava Edwards has been the #2 behind her and despite starting 18 times in 22 games is just 5-4 on the year with a 4.66 ERA in 67.2 innings with 30 strikeouts, 24 walks and a .321 BAA. Katherin Raper has made 17 appearances in relief this season and is 2-2 with a save and a 5.11 ERA in 24.2 innings of work with 28 strikeouts while Vanessa Candito is 4-3 with a save and a 6.28 ERA in 42.1 innings with 32 strikeouts. Alexis Kemp is 2-4 in 15 games of mostly relief and sports a 4.70 ERA across 25.1 innings while Hallie Crappell has made eight appearances on the season and is 0-2 with a 12.60 ERA in 8.1 innings.
 
Defensively Regis fields at a .957 clip and has committed 64 errors this season.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Thursday will be third meeting of the season between the Orediggers and Rangers and 152nd all-time with Regis leading110-41. The regular season series between the teams back in March was impacted by more than a foot of snow across the Denver metro area ended up being moved across town to MSU Denver's field and condensed to a single doubleheader on March 18, which the teams split with Regis winning 6-2 in the opening and Mines claiming victory in the nightcap 11-9. Last season the teams also met in the RMAC tournament in the first elimination game of the event which saw Regis end Mines' season with a come from behind 6-4 result.

ON DECK
Thursday mornings result goes a long way in determining what's next for Mines at the RMAC Tournament. With a win, they stay on the top side of the bracket and advance to take on top seed and host Colorado Mesa at 3 p.m. With a loss, they'll be in the loser's bracket and have to stave off elimination in another 10 a.m. game against the loser between Colorado Christian and either MSU Denver or CSU Pueblo.
 
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.