Mines (25-21, 21-17) vs. Adams State (5-44, 3-37) – Thursday, 12 p.m. (DH) – Golden, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]
Mines (25-21, 21-17) vs. Adams State (5-44, 3-37) – Friday, 11 a.m. (DH) – Golden, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]

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REGULAR SEASON WRAP-UP
For one final time in 2024 the Colorado School of Mines softball team will take the field at Joe Coors, Jr. Softball Field as they'll conclude their regular season slate with a four-game series against Adams State looking to improve their standing ahead of an impending postseason appearance.
 
SCHEDULE ADVISORY
Due to inclement weather in the forecast for Saturday, this weekend's series has been moved up a day to Thursday-Friday at Joe Coors, Jr. Softball Field with start times of 12 p.m. and 11 a.m. each day.
 
SENIOR DAY
This weekend will be the final home games for five Colorado School of Mines seniors who will be celebrated prior to game one of Friday's doubleheader. Trystin Oshiro-Sano, Sara Larson, Sidney Wilson, Kayleigh Krueger and Sadriena Rodriguez will all be calling it a career after 2024 while the sixth senior, Allison Westbrook, will be back again in 2025 for her fifth and final year of eligibility.
 
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 66-77 with a mark of 59-53 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.
 
IN THE POLLS
Mines was tabbed to finish fifth the RMAC Preseason Coaches Poll this season, up two places from their projected result last season of seventh. Defending RMAC champions Colorado Christian were picked to repeat this season with eight first-place votes followed by MSU Denver and Colorado Mesa, who each earned a pair of first-place ballots and were separated by just one point in the poll. Regis checked in just ahead of Mines in fourth with UCCS in sixth with CSU Pueblo and Chadron State in seventh and eighth. Fort Lewis and New Mexico Highlands each earned 37 points to finish tied for ninth in the standings while Adams State and Black Hills State each earned 18 points to finish tied for 11th.
 
WEEK 11 RECAP
The final road games of 2024 didn't quite go the way Mines likely had hoped as they dropped just their second RMAC series of the season to MSU Denver. After claiming a 3-0 win in the opener, Mines dropped the final three games 6-0, 2-0 and 5-1 to end the weekend. Sadriena Rodriguez shined in the opener, spinning a three-hit shutout while Sidney Wilson and Sara Larson each drove in a run in the winning effort. Cassidy Chvatal belted added to her team-leading home run total in the finale with a solo shot to centerfield while Allison Westbrook didn't necessarily get the results that reflected how she pitched as she spun three shutout innings over her six frames of work Monday.
 
ESTABLISHING THE RUNNING GAME
After setting a new single-season record for stolen bases in 2023, the Orediggers got off to a bit of a slow start on the base paths to begin 2024, but have been making up for lost time over the last month-plus. Over their last 23 games, Mines has successfully stolen at least one base in 21 games and tallied 52 acts of larceny since April 18 and only getting caught five times. In their first 22 games of the year, the Orediggers were just 8-13 when trying to gain an extra 60 feet. Headed up by Kellan Ton who is 21-22 and Sara Larson who is 14-18, nine different players have successfully logged a stolen base in 2024 and while last season's mark of 86 may be out of reach this year as they currently stand at 60, Mines will give it their best shot over their final four regular season outings and the postseason.
 
DEFENSE LEADS THE WAY
Through 46 games, Mines still remains one of the top defensive units in the RMAC, now tied with CCU for the top spot in the RMAC defensively at .970. They have committed just 37 errors, the fewest in the RMAC this season and have 12 players with a fielding percentage better than .970 as individuals. 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 174 and the latter at 185, passing Sonoma Toot (2015-18) for 12th all-time and now one back of Margie Cone (2006-09) for 11th and eight 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 36 doubles in her career, tied with Deborah Ausmus (1993-95) for 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 59, 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 13, passing Hallie Smith (2015-18), ranks fifth all-time in wins with 39 and is now one shy of tied for fourth all-time with Claire Stringfellow (2017-20) to become the fifth 40-game winner in school history, currently stands fourth all-time in career ERA at 2.63, is in the top 10 twice now in single-season shutouts (5, 2023; 5, 2024) and is now sixth all-time in innings pitched with 397, passing Katie Kocman (2006-09) and is looking to become the sixth pitcher to clear 400 career innings at Mines and has a chance to break into the top five in that category as well, with Stringfellow ahead of her with 405.2 innings worked,. 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 346 as she tries to track down Balogh in another category for fourth, but will need to pass 373 to do so.
 
Freshman speedster Kellan Ton is now into the single-season record books as well with 21 stolen bases, now the fourth-most in a season in program history passing Kaleigh Starr (2009) and Renata Boyd (2022) to become the fourth player with 20 or more steals in a season, and is now three shy of tying the single-season record of 24 held by Brinley Benson (2011) and Lauren Decker (2023) and with 4 games to go, that's not out of the realm of possibility.
 
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
Five regulars are batting better than .300 for the Orediggers this season led by Kendall Aragon's .396 clip with a team-best 29 RBI and 24 runs scored to go along with five doubles and seven steals. Sidney Wilson is batting .348 entering this weekend with 27 RBI, four doubles, two home runs and 18 runs scored while freshman Kellan Ton will look to get back going as her averaged has dipped in recent weeks but is still a respectable .346 with five doubles, three triples and 14 RBI to her credit as she leads the team with 31 runs scored and 21 steals.
 
Sara Larson is batting .340 with a team-best nine doubles and 18 RBI while scoring 17 herself and going 14-18 on steals while Lexie Semeyn enters the week batting .308 with eight doubles, a team-leading four triples, two home runs, 26 RBI and 24 runs scored, Kayleigh Krueger has her fourth 20-RBI season as she's batting .291 with five extra-base knocks to go with 21 runs scored and six stolen bases in as many attempts. Cassidy Chvatal is up to seven home runs on the season now as part of her 16 extra-base to go along with eight doubles and a triple while driving in 22 and scoring 24 while Hannah Roberts has been a mainstay at second base for the last month-plus and is batting .257 with six doubles and eight RBI.
 
Emily Rogers has taken over designated player duties and is batting .241 with a .405 OBP aided by seven walks and has four RBI with three steals this season along with 10 runs scored. Sam Whisenand is batting .300 in limited at bats, being used mostly as a pinch runner and scoring nine times with three steals.
 
Looking in the circle, Sadriena Rodriguez will look to get back in the win column after a hard-luck loss Monday as she enters the final weekend of the regular season at 16-7 with a 2.45 ERA over 26 appearances with 22 starts for 140 innings, spinning 14 complete games with five shutouts and striking out 104 against just 42 walks and limiting teams to a .246 average. Kat Miller is looking to get back to .500 on the season at 4-5 with a 3.98 ERA in 24 games with 15 starts with one of two saves this season by Mines pitching, working 75.2 innings and striking out 26. Allison Westbrook's results weren't indicative of how she pitched against MSU Denver as she dropped back to 5-5 on the season and has the other of two saves this season to go with a 5.56 ERA in 24 games with four starts for 56.2 innings. Ellen Shull matched her season-high with two innings of relief Sunday and lowered her ERA to 5.25 in the process and now has worked eight innings in seven outings, while Chvatal remains an option if needed having worked eight games with five starts for 20 innings this season.
 
SCOUTING ADAMS STATE
For the Grizzlies and second-year head coach Dane Craig, to say the 2024 season hasn't gone to plan may be an understatement. Adams State enters the weekend 5-44 overall and 3-37 in the RMAC and is currently enduring a 10-game skid during which they have been run-ruled seven times.
 
Despite their record, ASU ranks ahead of Mines in terms of runs scored this season with 221 and is inside the top six in the league as a team when it comes to doubles (70), triples (20) and home runs (33) and are slugging .449 which is good for fifth in the RMAC.
 
Five regulars are batting over .300 for Adams State headed up by Belinda Vargas who leads the team in most offensive categories with a .410/.447/.861 line that includes 31 runs scored, 12 doubles, two triples, 13 home runs, 41 RBI and six stolen bases with over half of her hits on the season being of the extra-base variety. Grace Hendrickson is batting .346 with 26 runs scored and nine extra-base hits including five doubles with Caylie Eiguren batting .327 with 11 doubles, seven home runs, 32 RBI and 11 runs scored. Kaia Bradford is next on the list batting .322 and leads ASU with 13 steals in 15 attempts with five doubles and five triples while driving in 18 and scoring 29 herself followed by Makayla Veglia at .311 with five doubles, five triples and six home runs for 26 RBI and 19 runs scored.
 
Mariah Madrid is batting .279 but has driven in 29 this season on the strength of 10 doubles and four triples and leads the team with 16 walks. Sydney Rodriguez is batting .237 with seven doubles and two home runs for 17 RBI this season while the rest of the ASU roster is batting a collective .207 with 15 doubles, two triples, three home runs and 38 RBI.
 
In the circle, freshman Aubree Davis has led the way, accounting for three of the team's five wins and owns a 6.08 ERA in 33 games with 21 starts for 142.2 innings, but has struggled with command at times as she's issued 100 walks while plunking 24 and striking out 59 while opponents are batting .332. Two-way player Danielle Hood has seen more time in the circle than at the dish this season and has one win to her credit with a 10.58 ERA in 21 games with 15 starts, working 84.2 innings but like Davis has struggled with command, issuing 83 walks and hitting 30 batters on the season while striking out 44 as opponents are hitting over .400 against her. Outfielder Ellie Heiser has found herself in the circle 15 times with eight starts this season and also has a win to her credit and has a 15.65 ERA in 35.1 innings of work but issued 32 walks as opponents are hitting just shy of .500 against her. Infielder Ali Davis has seen seven of her nine appearance this season in the circle come since March 24 including appearances in all four games against Chadron State last weekend with three relief appearances and a start and has worked 22 innings, allowing 34 walks and a .429 BAA. Another infielder Makayla Veglia is 0-1 on the season making her pitching debut last weekend against the Eagles, working five total innings in two games with one start but did well in her first outing, allowing a run on five hits in 2.2 innings.
 
Defense has been the undoing for the Grizzlies this season, as they rank last in the RMAC in fielding at .912 and lead the conference with 130 errors.
 
SERIES HISTORY
All-time against the Grizzlies, the Orediggers are 60-73 and 30-41 at home, but recent history had lent itself to Mines. The Silver & Blue have won the last five meetings against ASU including a four-game sweep in Alamosa last season and are 15-3 in the last 18 meetings between the teams going back to 2018. This weekend's games in Golden will be the first home contests for Mines since 2021, when they took three out of four from Adams State, winning by scores of 10-1, 9-0 and 9-1 before suffering a 6-2 loss in the finale.

ON DECK
Following the conclusion of the regular season this weekend, Mines will await to see where they'll be seeded and where they'll be headed for the 2024 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Softball Championship May 2-4.
 
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.