DENVER, Colo. – Under clear skies and sunshine Sunday, the Colorado School of Mines softball team was back at the Assembly Athletic Complex Sunday to wrap up their four-game series with MSU Denver. Sunday doubleheader saw the two games play out about as opposite as could be with the Roadrunners (17-7, 12-3) taking a 16-13 slugfest in game one before the Orediggers (6-20, 5-10) got the better end of a low-scoring affair to claim the finale by a score of 2-1.
 
MSU Denver set the tone for high-scoring game in the first inning as the third batter of the game Grace Bower hit a one-out two-run home run to take the early lead. Mines came back with four runs in the second, but could have been more as they ended up leaving the bases loaded in the inning. Lindy French led off with a single and after a popout to third, Lauren Romero joined her on base with a single of her own. Mia Lopez was then plunked on an 0-2 offering from Natalie Romero to load the bases and turn the lineup over to Kellan Ton. A throwing error by the first baseman allowed both French and Romero to score and tie the game at 2-2. A groundout back to the circle was followed by an RBI single from Kendall Aragon to take the lead and after Lexie Semeyn walked to load the bases, Cassidy Chvatal forced home a run as she was walked on four pitches as they Orediggers sent 10 batters to the plate in the inning.
 
The Roadrunners came back with five runs in their half of the inning. Natalie Shellhorn reached on a one-out single and scored on a double by Hannah DiFabio. Katie Maney singled home DiFabio after a passed ball and following a double by Alexia Boring, Jenna Medhus homered to left center to retake the lead 7-4 before Semeyn ended the inning with a caught stealing of Miki Berg at second base.
 
The Orediggers got back within a run in the third, plating a pair of runs with one out. Following a groundout to start the frame, Romero reached on a four-pitch walk before coming all the way around to scoring a triple to left field by Lopez. The throw back in scooted away at third base as Lopez scrambled back to her feet and dashed the final 60 feet, sliding in safely to make it a 7-6 game as for the second consecutive inning, Mines left the bases loaded.
 
MSUD then scored seven runs in the bottom of the third, doing so on a two-run single, a grand slam and an RBI double to make it a 14-6 game with Allison Westbrook being charged with six of those runs in relief of Ellen Shull (0-5). Mines rallied in the fourth, halving the deficit as they plated four runs. French led off again with a single before Kailey Morales walked and Romero singled to load the bases for Lopez. Three straight run-scoring singles followed as Lopez, Kellan Ton and Emiaj Self all drove in a run before a sac fly from Semeyn plated the fourth run to make it a 14-10 contest.
 
Back-to-back walks in the bottom of the fourth saw Shull re-enter the game in the circle for Westbrook and quickly work out of trouble, getting a fielder's choice force out at third before inducing an inning-ending 5-2 double play to complete just the second scoreless inning of the game.
 
After the Orediggers went down in order in the fifth, the Roadrunners added two more runs on a two-out two-run home run by Berg that made it 16-10. Mines did try to rally in the late going, scoring three runs over the final two frames but coming up just short. An RBI groundout by Aragon scored Ton with one out in the sixth before Cassidy Chvatal doubled home Semeyn to cut the gap back to four. After Shull left one in the home sixth, Ton scored Emily Rogers on an RBI groundout to second after she led off the inning with a walk. Unfortunately, MSUD reliever Cheyenne Prieto was able to leave it there as a lineout to left field ended a wild and high-scoring 16-13 game.
 
The series finale started as a near copy of game two Saturday with Kat Miller (2-7) and Medhus dueling it out in the circle as the first three innings saw both sides get traffic on the bases, but had nothing to show for their efforts. Kendall Aragon, Lindy French and Lauren Romero all singled in the early going for Mines while Miller navigated around a pair of singles and a pair of walks.
 
MSU Denver ended up the team to breakthrough first as Berg left the yard for the second time in the afternoon on a 1-2 pitch to take the lead as Miller rebounded nicely to retire the next three batters in order. Following a scoreless fifth inning, the biggest swing of the day came three batters into the sixth inning. Emiaj Self opened the frame with a four-pitch walk and moved up to second on a sac bunt by Kendall Aragon, representing the tying run. As it turned out, the go-ahead run was next up at the plate and wasted no time taking the lead as Lexie Semeyn belted a titanic two-run home run to straightaway left field to flip the score and take a 2-1 lead.
 
That decisive swing was all Miller needed in the circle to close out the game, as she worked around a two-out pinch hit walk in the sixth before working a 1-2-3 seventh to record her second win of the season and get Mines back in the win column to close out their two-week road trip.
 
NOTABLES
-Miller turned in another gem in the circle, going the distance and allowing just one run on four hits while striking out a pair; for the weekend, she worked 13.2 innings and allowed just two runs on 10 hits with three punchout
-Ton led the way in game one, going 4-6 with two RBI and two runs scored
-Semeyn posted a 3-4 afternoon, going 2-2 with an RBI, a run scored and two walks in the opener before drawing another walk and hitting the go-ahead two-run home run in game two; she's now tied for the team lead in home runs with Chvatal at seven on the season and now has half of her 14 career home runs this season
-The senior posted a stellar line for the weekend, going 6-11 at the plate with two doubles, a triple and a home run with six runs batted in and three runs scored, posting a slash line of .545/.600/1.182
-French went 3-6 on the day highlighted by a 2-5 performance in the opener with two runs scored
-Lopez went 2-4 with a triple, two RBI and three runs scored in the opener while playing some lights out defense in right field, saving several runs and taking away several hits over the course of the doubleheader
-Aragon hit safely in each game and drove in a pair in game one
-Chvatal doubled and drove in two runs as well in the opener
 
UP NEXT
The Orediggers are back in Golden at Joe Coors, Jr. Softball Field next week as they host Colorado Christian for four games in week four of RMAC action.
 
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.