MANSFIELD, Texas – The Colorado School of Mines softball concluded action at the Top Gun Lone Star DII College Classic Sunday by splitting their final two games of the weekend against Minnesota State Moorhead and UT Dallas. The bats were hot for the Orediggers (2-3) in their opener against the Dragons (0-5) as they recorded six extra-base hits on their way to an 8-3 win while game two saw them lead early against the Comets (2-2) before losing the lead in the middle innings and falling by a final of 8-4 in five innings.
 
Taylor Wayne (1-1) stranded a pair to begin the game and was quickly spotted a two-run lead in the home half of the first. Kellan Ton led off with a single and after a Lauren Romero double, came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Kendall Aragon. Romero scored two batters later off the bat of Brooke Gonzales on a single to center to make it 2-0. Wayne was just one pitch away from working out of another jam in the top of the second and leaving two more on base, but a 3-2 offering to Loie Moore caught too much of the plate and sailed over the fence in left for a three-run home run to put the Dragons up 3-2. Emily Rogers wasted little time leveling the score as she led off the bottom of the inning with an inside the park home run to centerfield for the first Mines home run of the season.
 
Wayne bounced back to hang a zero in the third, working around a two-out error and inducing three groundouts to third before the Orediggers retook the lead thanks to an RBI triple the other way to right field by Katie Bauer that scored Aragon to make it 4-3. Pinch runner Sam Whisenand scored in the fourth on an RBI double to left center by Kellan Ton to make it a 5-3 lead in the fifth as the offense kept humming. Two more runs came across in the fifth as Bauer led off with a double into the left field corner before being lifted for pinch runner Sydney Pendowski. Pendowski stole third and after Emiaj Self drew a walk, the pair executed a double steal of home and second to make it 6-3. Self came around to score two batters later when pinch hitter Miquela Tammaro stepped in for the first time and delivered an opposite field double down the line in left to extend the lead to four.
 
Mia Lopez delivered a one-out pinch-hit triple in the home sixth before scoring on another sac fly by Aragon to conclude the scoring and make it 8-3. Wayne went back to work in the seventh to close out a strong day of work and did just that. After surrendering the home run in the second inning, she allowed just one hit the final five innings which came with one out in the seventh as MSUM tried to rally. The fifth-year righty needed just two more pitches after that to record the final two outs and close the book on her first win of the season.
 
Closing out the weekend as the visitors on the scoreboard, the Orediggers hung a crooked number on the board right away with three runs in the opening half inning. Three straight singles by Kellan Ton, Mia Lopez and Kendall Aragon loaded the bases and after a strikeout, a throwing error on a ball off the bat of Brooke Gonzales saw two runs come across to take the early lead. Emiaj Self delivered a two-out single back up the box to make it 3-0 before UT Dallas came back with a pair of runs in their half of the inning on a fielder's choice by Audrey Messer and a single by Sophia Martinez. Mines added to their lead in the second as after leadoff double by Ton, a second UTD error allowed her to score and make it 4-2.
 
Ellen Shull (0-1) shook off the first inning by setting down the Comets in order in the second before running into more trouble in the third with two outs. After loading the bases with one out, Shull induced a lineout to left that froze the runners and was one pitch away from getting out of danger. Instead a full count walk to Sarak Olenick followed to force home a run before Cameron Alardin followed with a two-run single brought about a pitching change as Kat Miller entered and recorded the final out of the inning. Mines had a chance to counter in the top of the fourth as Ton and Lopez both walked before advancing into scoring position, but Savannah Vanderpool was able to escape the jam and keep the Orediggers off the board.
 
The Comets followed up with three more runs in their half of the fourth against Miller, using their bench to great success on the bases and at the plate as they stretched the lead to 8-4. Rylee Church made her second appearance of the week as she took over to work the fifth in the circle and worked a 1-2-3 inning to keep it a four-run game. Ryen Herman led off the sixth with a single to left as Mines looked to rally with the top of the order to follow, but unfortunately the action up against the clock with a travel curfew in effect, the top of sixth was not to be and neither was a rally attempt as UTD picked up the win.
 
NOTABLES
-Wayne went the distance to pick up her first win of the season, working six scoreless frames and striking out five against three walks while allowing three runs on just five hits
-Aragon scored and drove in a pair of runs in game one before going 2-3 with a double and a run in game two
-Ton broke through for her first hits of the season Sunday, going 3-4 with a double, RBI, run scored and stolen base in the opener before going 2-2 with a double and two runs in game two
-Bauer continued her strong weekend, going 2-4 with a pair of a extra base knocks including another RBI triple in game one while also throwing out a pair of runners on stolen base attempts;
-Rogers recorded the first home run of the season on an inside-the-park homer in game one
-Gonzales went 1-3 in game one and drove in a run in each game
-Self recorded a pair of hits including a triple and drove in a run in game two
-Pendowski scored her first career run and was credited with two stolen bases in game one and made her first career plate appearance in game two as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning
-Church recorded her first career strikeout in relief in game two
-Herman's single in the sixth would have been her first career hit, but with the action reverting back to the last completed inning for statistical purposes that first official hit will have to wait
-The Mines bench shined against the Dragons, with Tammaro recording an RBI double in her first career at bat in the fifth before Lopez tripled and subsequently scored in the sixth
-For the weekend, the Orediggers batted .308 with 13 of their 36 hits going for extra bases (eight doubles, four triples, one home run) and scored 24 runs, went 6-7 on stolen bases and fielded .957
 
ON DECK
Mines makes their 2026 home debut next weekend at Joe Coors, Jr. Softball Field on February 8 with a doubleheader against MSU Billings starting at 12 p.m. The Yellowjackets went 2-4 on opening weekend at the Minot State Bubble Invite and will play MSU Denver Saturday before heading to Golden Sunday.
 
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.