GOLDEN, Colo. (GoThunderWolves.com – Apr. 12, 2014) — The Colorado State University-Pueblo baseball team split another doubleheader and 4-game Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference series as they claimed an 8-3 first game win before dropping the nightcap, 3-1 to the host Colorado School of Mines Orediggers on Saturday at Jim Darden Field.
The ThunderWolves, who also split a doubleheader with the Orediggers on Friday, scored six runs in the top of the second inning in the 9-inning first game and banged out 15 hits, including four doubles and a 3-run Scott Hoyt (Sr., Longmont, Colo.) homer while cruising to the victory. However, the Pack was held to just five hits in the 7-inning Game 2 as they finished a weekend 2-2 for the third time in the last four series.
The ThunderWolves are now 19-18 overall and 15-11 in RMAC play while the Orediggers, who came from 1-0 down to win the second game despite managing just five hits of their own, are 16-17 overall and just a game behind the Pack in the overall RMAC standings at 14-12.
The ThunderWolves would get all the runs they needed in the second inning as they recorded five hits, including Hoyt's blast to build a lead that proved to be insurmountable. Hoyt also singled in the Pack's last run in the fourth after Austin Mascorro (Jr., Oxnard, Calif.) had hit a RBI double to trade places with Mario Sanchez (Sr., Tucson, Ariz.), who went 3-for-4 with a walk from his lead-off spot.
Mascorro and Hoyt were two of the five Pack players to tally two hits.
Meanwhile, Lonny Schoon (Sr., Colorado Springs, Colo.) went six innings allowing just five hits and two runs while striking out five Orediggers to earn the win. He is now 4-1 this season on the mound.
In the second game, the Orediggers turned double plays in the top of the first and second innings before a 2-out rally proved fruitless in the fourth.
The Pack, who got out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the second, would finally break through for the game's opening run in the top of the fifth as JJ Ortiz (Jr., Pueblo, Colo.) and Shane Richins (Jr., Heber, Utah) singled around an Eddie Williams (Sr., Castle Rock, Colo.) sacrifice. Richins then stole second before Sanchez hit a sacrifice fly to score Ortiz.
However, the 1-0 lead would be short-lived as a 1-out single followed by a Pack throwing error knotted the game through five innings.
The Pack then wasted a Hoyt lead-off double in the sixth, leaving the bases loaded.
The Orediggers took advantage as a 2-run, 2-out single by Zach Bothwell in the bottom of the sixth gave them a 3-1 lead, which proved to be enough as the Pack were retired on fly-outs in the seventh.
The ThunderWolves, who have not lost a RMAC series this season, will now return home for their next eight games, a stretch that starts Thursday (Apr. 17) at 6 p.m. against Metro State.
