DENVER, Colo. – Back on the road but closer to home Saturday, the Colorado School of Mines softball team was at the Assembly Athletic Complex in downtown Denver Saturday afternoon for the first of two doubleheaders this weekend against MSU Denver. The Orediggers (5-19, 4-9) found themselves unable to overcome an early six-run deficit in the opener despite a late rally fueled by
Lexie Semeyn, while a game two pitcher's duel saw
Kat Miller come out on the wrong end the result, as the Roadrunners (16-6, 11-2) took the afternoon by scores of 8-5 and 1-0.
The afternoon got underway with the Roadrunners scoring first, plating four runs in their first at bats of the day. A bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Miki Berg scored Alexia Boring for the first run before Adriana Bueno worked a walk to load the bases again. Three more walks followed, all forcing in runs before a groundout to third ended the inning.
Allison Westbrook (1-3) settled down after the rough first inning, working around a leadoff single in the second and stranding the runner at third before working a 1-2-3 third inning to keep it a four-run game. The Roadrunners broke through again in the fourth, plating two runs on an RBI single by Boring and an RBI triple by Jenna Medhus to extend the lead to 6-0.
After Westbrook escaped danger in the fifth by leaving two runners on base, Mines finally got their offense going in the sixth as they had just three hits through the first five innings.
Emiaj Self led off by reaching on an E5 and ended up at second on the play before coming around to score on a single to left center by
Kendall Aragon. Aragon scored moments later when
Lexie Semeyn belted a triple to centerfield to make it 6-2. After a strikeout, a ball of the bat of
Lindy French was misplayed at shortstop for the second error of the inning, allowing Semeyn to come across and make it a three-run game.
Lauren Romero's second single of the day chased started Natalie Romero, but reliever Samantha Mader was able to get a groundout for the final out of the inning.
MSUD came back with two more runs in their half of the sixth. After Medhus was hit by a pitch, she scored on a triple that narrowly missed leaving the yard off the wall in left center by Berg. Berg scored a few pitches later on a wild pitch before Westbrook worked around a walk to get a lineup to shortstop to prevent further damage.
Trailing now by five heading to the seventh, the Orediggers' rally was started off once again by Self who coaxed a one-out walk. Subsequent walks to Aragon and
Cassidy Chvatal loaded the bases for Semeyn, who saw the starter Romero re-enter the game in the circle to face her. The senior backstop was mere inches from leaving the yard with a grand slam but instead had to settled for a two-run double as the ball caromed off the top of the fence and back into play to make it 8-5. Unfortunately, the rally stopped there as Romero shrugged off the base knock to get a strikeout and a groundout to end the game.
Game two was a pitcher's duel from the start with
Kat Miller (1-7) and Medhus matching each other nearly pitch for pitch over the first six innings. Miller needed just 37 pitches to record the first 12 outs of her day and stranded runners in each the second, third, fourth and fifth innings.
The best scoring chance for either team came in the top of the fifth for Mines as
Mia Lopez and
Kellan Ton reached on consecutive singles.
Emiaj Self dropped down a sac bunt to move both runners into scoring position, but an infield popup in the circle and a strikeout saw the opportunity go by the wayside. MSU Denver then had their best scoring chance in the home half of the inning as Hannah DiFabio singled to shortstop with one out before Natalie Shellhorn reached on an infield pop that fell in between three Orediggers on the first base side of the circle. Miller buckled down and retired the side with to popups to Self to strand two and keep the game scoreless.
After a scoreless sixth, the Orediggers looked again to score in the seventh as Lopez reached on an error to leadoff the inning. After a foul out to third, Lopez was forced out at second on fielder's choice off the bat of Self. Aragon then singled through the left side to put two runners on before a flyout to left end the inning. Trish Leins pinch hit for MSUD to leadoff the home seventh and drew a walk before being lifted for pinch runner Miranda McCoy. After a sac bunt and another infield popup, Miller looked poised to get out of the inning once more, but instead Shellhorn laced a double down the left field line to score McCoy for the walk-off 1-0 win.
NOTABLES
-Aragon went 3-7 on the day with an RBI and two runs scored
-Ton hit safely in both games
-Semeyn doubled and tripled while scoring a run and driving in three in the opener and finished the day 3-7 as well
-Romero went 2-3 in game one
-Miller was the hard-luck loser in game two as she worked 6.2 innings and allowing just one run on six hits and threw just 76 pitches in the game
UP NEXT
Mines is back at the Assembly Athletic Complex Sunday at 11 a.m. for the final two games of the weekend against MSU Denver.
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.
