Mines (19-31, 18-21) vs. New Mexico Highlands (14-36, 8-32) – Friday, 11 a.m. (DH) – Golden, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]
Mines (19-31, 18-21) vs. New Mexico Highlands (14-36, 8-32) – Saturday, 11 a.m. (DH) – Golden, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]

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THE FINAL COUNTDOWN
The 2025 season comes to a close for the Colorado School of Mines this weekend as they return to Joe Coors, Jr. Softball Field for their final Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference series of the season when they play host to New Mexico Highlands starting at 11 a.m. both Friday and Saturday.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
This week's games will be streamed free of charge on the RMAC Network. Free live stats will also be available. Links for video and stats can be found on minesathletics.com.
 
FAN ADVISORY
Fans planning to attend this weekend's series with New Mexico Highlands need to please be aware of other events on campus this weekend, the biggest of which being the 2025 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Competition at the Stermole Track Complex will begin Friday and run all-day through Sunday. There will be a high volume of foot traffic from spectators, along with competitors warming up across and around the Clear Creek Athletic Complex so fans are encouraged to exercise caution when arriving to campus. Parking in Lot K behind Stermole Soccer Stadium will be limited and fans are reminded that street parking in the City of Golden is not permitted while city lots are pay-to-park. Additional parking can be found on campus in the parking garage off Elm Street across the street from Volk Gym. Please refer to the Mines Parking Map to help plan your weekend accordingly.
 
LADIES, THANK YOU
With the 2025 season coming to a close this weekend, the Orediggers will be celebrating the six members of this year's senior class. Five of those six, Kailey Morales, Cassidy Chvatal, Lexie Semeyn, Hannah Roberts and Allison Westbrook will be calling it a career following this weekend while fourth-year junior will be recognized alongside her classmates before returning to finish her eligibility in 2026. Senior Day ceremonies will be held following the conclusion of the series on Saturday.
 
UNDER NEW LEADERSHIP
On December 2, 2024, Tobin Echo-Hawk was named the 13th head coach of Mines softball. A Colorado native from nearby Louisville and most recently the head softball coach of Erie High School, Echo-Hawk brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Golden.
 
An All-American infielder at Nebraska during the Huskers' ascendance to a national powerhouse, Echo-Hawk holds numerous single-season and career records from a highly decorated career. After her time in Lincoln, Echo-Hawk got her coaching start at Portland State University as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator before being elevated to the head position after two seasons. She led the Vikings for five years before moving onto the University of Texas El Paso for six seasons as head coach. Her most recent stop at the collegiate level was at New Mexico State where she spent two seasons as an assistant coach.
 
Read more on the new leader of the Orediggers here.
 
WEEK 12 RECAP
Mines closed out road action in 2025 last weekend when they ventured south to Pueblo and split a four-game set with CSU Pueblo. The Orediggers took games one and three 5-3 and 8-3 while the ThunderWolves took games two and four 9-5 and 9-2. Kendall Aragon helped lead the way in the series opener Friday, belting the first home run of her college career while Cassidy Chvatal and Lauren Romero each recorded multi-hit outings. Kat Miller went the distance in the circle, striking out five and allowing two earned runs on six hits to record her eighth win of the season. In Saturday's opener, Aragon and Chvatal were big again, combining for three runs and three RBI while each recorded two hits while Emily Rogers and Lexie Semeyn chipped in a combined five hits between them. Ellen Shull handled business in the circle, picking up her second win of the season as she too went the distance with two strikeouts and three runs allowed on six hits.
 
MEET THE CAPTAINS
A new group of captains will lead the Orediggers into the 2025 season as seniors Cassidy Chvatal, Kailey Morales and Hannah Roberts will be joined by redshirt junior Taylor Wayne and junior Kendall Aragon.
 
Chvatal transitioned into a new role as the everyday right fielder for Mines in 2024 and had an outstanding season, starting all 50 games she played and batting .285 and leading the team with eight home runs and 10 doubles while driving in 27 runs and scoring 30.
 
Morales, a veteran catcher with 47 games behind the dish, belted her first career home run last season and added a pair of doubles while scoring seven times and driving in seven while helping guide the pitching staff to a 3.73 ERA in 2024.
 
Roberts emerged as the full-time starter at second base last spring after platooning there her first two seasons. She started 45 times in 47 games and batted .283 with six doubles, 10 RBI and 19 runs scored and hit .411 over the final three weeks of the season, as well as posting a career-best .956 fielding percentage.
 
Wayne missed the entirety of 2024 recovering from a hand injury and will look to contribute in multiple positions in 2025. In 2023, she won three games in the circle and struck out 30 in 62 innings of work with her best performance coming at Chadron State on March 20, when she spun a one-hit shutout.
 
Aragon, a two-time All-RMAC performer in her first two seasons, has been a fixture in the outfield since the day she stepped on campus. A starter in all 101 games she has played, Aragon is a career .390 hitter and has scored 59 runs while driving in 46 and turning in back-to-back 60-hit seasons.
 
SURVEYING THE STANDINGS
The field for the 2025 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Softball Championship is set and unfortunately for Mines, they will not be participating in this year's edition of the event. Based on series results and weather-based cancellations, even if the Orediggers win out this weekend, their winning percentage wouldn't be enough to vault them into the top six. Meanwhile, the race for the title sees MSU Denver (32-7), Colorado Mesa (32-8) and Colorado Christian (32-8) all separated by half a game. CSU Pueblo (26-14) hangs onto fourth at the moment looking to stave off Black Hills State (24-16), the surprise of the RMAC this season who will be making their first postseason appearance in their Division II era. UCCS (22-15) claimed the final playoff spot following a doubleheader sweep in their only two games last week over Regis. Mines is the first team out at 18-21 and is followed by the Rangers (16-22) in eighth while Chadron State is 14-26 in a season in which their head coach left for a new opportunity a week before their first game. Fort Lewis (9-30) is looking to get to 10 wins in league play along with New Mexico Highlands (8-32) while Adams State (3-37) looks to snap an eight-game losing streak.
 
PLENTY TO PLAY FOR
While they may not be playing postseason softball this season, the Orediggers still have plenty to play for this weekend against New Mexico Highlands. First and foremost, a 20-win season is well within reach and would be the third straight 20-win season for the program and fourth time following the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Even looking back to 2016, Mines has a chance to hit the 20-win mark for the eighth time in the last nine full seasons. A series win meanwhile would get Mines to 20 wins in RMAC play for the third season in a row and also register the 700th win in program history since its inception in 1983.
 
Individually, there's several milestones within reach. Starting numerically, speedster Kellan Ton has turned on the jets in recent weeks and has another 20-steal campaign under her belt as she has 23 bags on the season and 48 in her career. The sophomore has a shot to break her own single-season record of 25 set last year with a shot to have the top two seasons all-time on the bases while also becoming just the third player in program history with 50 stolen bases joining Brielle Asato (2015-18, 50) and Renata Boyd (2020-23, 58).
 
Kendall Aragon has another 60-hit season in 2025, the third of her career, and now just needs four more knocks to get to 200 in her career while the next run she scores will be the 100th of her career. Already with a career season in terms of extra-base hits including 15 doubles, one more two-bagger will make it 16 put in her a tie for eighth all-time in a season with Kara Jones (2018), Kaleigh Starr (2009), Jackye Lagen (2007) and Stacie LaRocque (2006).
 
Cassidy Chvatal meanwhile already owns the single-season home run record with 19 and counting and now has a shot at the single-season RBI record as she enters the weekend with 60, one back of Katie Kocman's 2009 mark of 61 for second and four back of Sara Larson's 64 in 2018. She's also got a chance to get to the century mark in career RBI, needing six more to get to 100 and one more home run would make her just the third Mines player ever to leave the yard 30 times in a career.
 
Lexie Semeyn is one triple shy of breaking into the record books as she needs one more to join Starr (2007-10), Kyndra Bradley (1995-98) and Beth Skidmore (2004-07) for the fifth-most in a career. The senior has also gone over the 100-hit mark this season in her career and posted career-highs in runs (33), doubles (13), home runs (12) and RBI (35). Her home run haul also has her tied for fifth all-time with Starr's 2009 season along with the 2008 campaign of Sarah Van Lingen.
 
Kat Miller meanwhile will look to cap off career year and seek to become a 10-game winner for the first time in her career. The junior righty has already established career-best marks across the board and emerged as the staff ace in 202 with a 5.65 ERA over 114.2 innings pitched with the first 50-strikeout season of her time in Golden, nearly doubling her total from last spring and while it might be a stretch, 15 punchout this weekend will get her to 100 in her career.
 
Allison Westbrook won't have a chance to match her win total from last year, but does have a shot to set a new career best total when in comes to strikeouts in a season as her 24 this season tie her performance from her debut season in Golden in 2023.
 
Those six are just the standouts among the Orediggers' roster looking to end 2025 with a bang and either ride off into the sunset with their careers or build some momentum for 2026 heading into the offseason.
 
CHECKING THE STAT SHEET
Kendall Aragon enters the final weekend of the season on the north side of .400 at the dish at .401 following the first two home runs of her career at CSU Pueblo last weekend and leads Mines with 65 hits and 15 doubles while also posting four triples and 29 RBI while scoring 40 and going 9-9 on the base paths. Cassidy Chvatal enters the week batting .347 and slugging and eye-watering .800 with 19 home runs, seven doubles, two triples, 60 RBI and 39 runs scored while also working a team-leading 29 walks. Kellan Ton brings 23 stolen bases into the upcoming series with a .324 batting average and 16 RBI along with 36 runs scored.
 
Emiaj Self's second half of the season has seen her average climb 54 points to .314 as she enters the weekend on a 10-game hitting streak and has nine doubles, two triples and 21 RBI with 26 runs scored in her debut season. Lexie Semeyn, the other half of one of the most dangerous 4-5 punches in the RMAC, is batting .301 with a .691 slugging percentage thanks to 13 doubles, two triples and an even dozen homers as she's driven in 35 and scored 33. Mia Lopez is batting .277 in her first season of action and has a pair of extra-base hits with 16 RBI while Emily Rogers has taken over duties at second base and is batting .244 with two homers and 19 RBI while going 5-6 on the bases.
 
Lauren Romero has settled in as the everyday starter at third base and seen a surge at the dish as well over the last month as she comes into the weekend batting .303 with three doubles and seven RBI. Sam Whisenand got the nod in right field again last weekend and is batting .278 with a homer and two RBI while Hannah Roberts has played through a knee injury most of the season to bat .260 with two doubles, a triple and two home runs with 17 RBI and 12 runs scored. Kailey Morales is ending her career with her best season as she's batting .242 with 12 RBI behind four doubles and got even with the softball gods hitting her first home run of the season at CSU Pueblo. Brooke Gonzales meanwhile has taken over the designated player spot and is batting .231 with two doubles and four RBI.
 
In the circle, Kat Miller continued her breakout season Friday as she went the distance in the season opener against the ThunderWolves to improve to 8-11 this season with a save and lowered her ERA to 5.65 across 26 appearances and in 15 starts, has struck out 52 against 43 walks in 114.2 innings of work. Taylor Wayne's return to action this season has seen her for 5-9 with a save in 25 appearances with 15 starts of her own for an ERA of 7.49 with 50 strikeouts in 107 innings and has a team-low .329 BAA. Ellen Shull starred in the circle Saturday to pick up her second career win and improve to 2-5 on the season in 16 outings with 12 starts for an even 53 innings and has 14 strikeouts to go with an 8.32 ERA. Allison Westbrook rounds out the rotation with a 4-6 record in 21 games with eight starts for 50.1 innings and has struck out 24 in that span.
 
As a team, the Orediggers are batting .307 with a .378 on-base percentage and a .454 slugging percentage yet still find themselves -62 in scoring margin despite scoring almost 300 runs this season. The pitching staff has an ERA of 7.34 and 140 strikeouts against 232 free passes issued with a .344 BAA while the defense sports a mark of .948 with 77 errors in 1,469 chances.
 
SCOUTING NEW MEXICO HIGHLANDS
Heaven Medina leads NMHU at the dish as the only regular batting above .300, doing so at a .393 clip and slugging .684 behind 12 doubles, five triples and four home runs while driving in 29 and scoring 27. She leads the Cowgirls in all of those categories and is also tops on the team with 46 hits. Andrea De La Trinidad is batting .283 this season with nine doubles, a pair of triples and 22 while Dioni Lincoln is batting .248 with 13 extra-base hits including 10 doubles and has 20 RBI while leading the team with five stolen bases.
 
Alessandra De La Trinidad, the elder of the two sisters, is batting .246 with two doubles and nine RBI while Karla Banegas checks in batting .238 with nine doubles and 18 RBI. Alexia Apodaca is batting .228 with four doubles, four triples and a pair of dingers with 12 RBI with Amaya Castille batting .220 with five RBI and three steals. Giana Marez rounds out the regulars batting .177 with three doubles but does have 15 RBI.
 
Other hitters to watch are two-way standout Jazmyn Griego who is batting .333 with seven doubles, a triple and two homers while driving in 24 and scoring 16. Shaylene Saladin has four doubles and seven RBI to go with a .279 average while Vicky Alvarado is batting .232 with two home runs and 15 RBI.
 
In the circle Griego heads up the pitching staff with a 7-9 record, two saves and a 5.25 ERA in 21 games with 13 starts for 96 innings with 42 strikeouts and 42 walks with a .325 BAA. Banegas also plays both ways and is 2-4 with an 8.64 ERA in 22 appearances with 14 starts for 90.2 innings and gas 19 strikeouts against 35 walks. Kennedy Williams meanwhile is 3-9 with a 10.58 ERA in 15 starts over 25 appearances for 89.1 innings with 26 punchouts to 51 walks. Vicky Alvarado has only made four appearances this season but has a 7.27 ERA in 8.2 innings while Kehasbah Gaussion rounds out the staff with a 2-2 record in 13 appearances with four starts and an 11.79 ERA over 23.2 innings with six strikeouts and 26 walks.
 
As a team, NMHU is batting .255 with a .357 on-base percentage and a .356 slugging percentage and has been outscored by a margin of 168 this season. The pitching staff has an ERA of 8.35 and has struck out 93 while issuing 190 free passes and posted a BAA of .369 while defensively they are fielding .950 with 70 errors in 1,387 chances.
 
SERIES HISTORY
New Mexico Highlands leads the all-time series with Mines 76-61 but recent history has favored the Orediggers. Last year in Golden, the Silver and Blue took the first three games of the series 6-0, 12-4 and 4-3 to improve to 39-38 all-time as the home team in the series, but failed to complete the sweep falling 3-0 in the finale. The last time the Cowgirls won a series was back in 2015 when they took three of four in Las Vegas. In the 20 matchups since then beginning in 2016, Mines is 17-3 but has played just four home games in that span with trips to Durango in 2016, Pueblo in 2019 and 12 straight games in The Land of Enchantment from 2021-2023 (the teams didn't meet in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and weren't on each other's schedules in 2017 and 2018).

ON DECK
Having been eliminated from postseason contention, the offseason awaits the Orediggers in preparation for 2026. Stay tuned to minesathletics.com for news on postseason awards and other program news over the summer.
 
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.