DENVER, Colo. – The Colorado School of Mines baseball team took a pair of heartbreaking losses Saturday during the Orediggers' non-conference doubleheader at Regis.
 
The Rangers stole a pair of one-run victories by scores of 12-11 and 13-12 despite Keyan Lundvall hitting .571 across both games with three runs on four hits with three doubles and one RBI. Jackson Babcock and Alex Freund also collected four hits each. Babcock scored twice, notched four RBI and hit a triple. Freund hammered a home run while coming across the plate four times as well. Ben Leiphart and Owen Hicks added home runs to the day's box score. Additional multi-run days came from Tyler Hummel, Alex Dunagan, Justin Kubojiri, and Owen Hicks. The list of multi-RBI performances included Hummel, Tyler Pina, Dunagan, and Kubojiri. Dunagan's double rounded out the extra-base hits in the doubleheader.
 
Saturday's starting pitchers for the visitors were Will Niles and Matthew Turner. Neither factored in their respective decisions. Niles spun four innings of five-run, seven-hit baseball in his seven-inning game. Turner lasted three innings and gave up eight runs on six hits but struck out six and walked five. Joseph Steidel (0-1) was the pitcher of decision in the first game of the day. Grady Booth (0-1) took the second decision of the day despite four strikeouts in 3.1 innings of relief. Dillon Alcouffe, Nicholas Spidel, Kenji Bray, Grant Reising, and Luke Parker all came out of the bullpen as well.
 
Overall, Mines (0-7) hit .375 as a team while Regis (3-3) turned in a .400 batting average. The Orediggers finished touting four doubles, one triple and three home runs. They also went 4-for-4 in stolen-base attempts. On the other side, the Rangers tallied seven doubles and three home runs with three stolen bases. Both teams committed a total of four errors, and the two staffs accumulated 14 walks each. In fact, Mines' pitchers struck out 14 batters while RU had seven strikeouts. The final one-run margins were decided by staff earned-run averages of 16.05 and 12.86, respectively. Sam Fisher (1-0) and Owne Mounier (1-) were the winning pitchers, and Colter Wilson (1) earned a save in game one.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Owen Hicks and Alex Freund both hit home runs in the first game of the day. Hicks' homer tied the game 2-2 in the third inning and Pina's two-run single afforded Miens a 4-2 lead. That cushion grew to 7-3 in the top of the fourth inning thanks to Dunagan's RBI-single. However, Regis scored two in the fourth, and then tied the game at 8-8 with three runs in the fifth inning. Hummel and Kubojiri teamed up to give the Orediggers a 10-8 advantage in the top of the sixth. The Rangers used the home half of the sixth frame to tied the game at 10. Two more runs in the same frame pushed RU ahead, 12-10. Freund's home run in the top of the seventh made it 12-11, but that was the end of the offense for either team.
 
Game two of the day saw Mines plunge to an 8-0 deficit after three innings in a contest scheduled for seven innings. The fourth inning brought a five-run outburst for the Orediggers. Lundvall sparked the surge by hitting a single and plating Evan Bilter. Regis matched that five-run explosion with one run, and the same again in the sixth inning after Babcock's two-run triple, Dunagan's double and a two-run single for Hummel. That put the score at 10-10 going into the final scheduled inning of the day. Then, Leiphart powered Mines back into the lead with his solo home run and a fielder's choice allowed Freund to score for a 12-10 lead. Unfortunately for the Orediggers, Regis stacked three runs as part of a walk-off effort in the bottom of the seventh inning.
 
NOTABLES
- Hicks' home run was the first of his collegiate career.
- Freund recorded his first home run in a Mines uniform. He's now batting .467 with five runs on seven hits with three RBI across three games.
- Leiphart's long ball was his first of the season and second as an Oredigger. The dinger afforded him a 1.00 batting average for the day.
- Babcock now has three career triples.
- Owen Elser made his collegiate debut on Saturday, appearing in both games with one run and one RBI.
- Through seven games, Mines is hitting .335 as a team and slugging .510.
- Grady Booth made his 2026 debut on Saturday, as did Nicholas Spidel
- Head Coach Robby Bales is now 159-147 in his eighth season at the helm.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Mines closes its non-conference series with Regis on Sunday at home at 12 p.m.
 
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.