COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – In what has been one of the most offensive heavy games in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) this season, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs baseball team came out on the losing side of a 21-15 ball game against No. 25 Colorado School of Mines at Mountain Lion Park on Friday afternoon.

Game one was nothing short of an offensive power surge as the Mountain Lions and Orediggers combined for 36 runs, 43 hits, 24 runners left on base, and five errors. UCCS came to out-hit the Orediggers 22-21 as both teams recorded seven extra base hits, with Colorado School of Mines going deep five times compared to UCCS' two home runs.

The Mountain Lions had 10 different student-athletes register a hit on Friday as juniors Matthew Clarke and Evan Richards led the team in hits with four, as they found the outfield gaps for two doubles each. True freshman Michael Bennin found his way into the game in the third inning as he went on to finish 2-for-5 at the plate with a grand slam and five RBI.

On the defensive side of the ball, both teams went deep into their bullpens to combine for 12 pitchers that entered the ball game. Jonathan Cowles started on the bump for the Mountain Lions, and threw 2 and 1/3 innings, allowing nine runs on nine hits in a losing effort.

Colorado School of Mines went on to score in eight of the nine innings and put the pressure on early, as they started the game off with a leadoff home run that came on the first pitch of the game. Cowles was able to recover quickly by retiring the next three batters with the help of his defense, as the Orediggers just put up one run in the first inning.

In the second and third innings, CSM came out swinging as they scored six runs in the second inning and five runs in the third to jump out to an early 12-0 lead.

However, in the home half of the third, the Mountain Lions swung momentum to their side as they exploded for eight runs to cut into the Oredigger lead 8-12, bringing the game within four runs. Clarke got the inning started for UCCS with a line drive that burnt the center fielder and hopped over the left center wall for a ground rule double. Matt Berg and Jake Anderson followed Clarke with back-to-back singles that loaded the bases for the pinch-hitting Bennin. In his first at-bat of the game, Bennin squared up a ball to deep left field for a grand slam, giving the Mountain Lions their first runs of the game. The scoring inning continued as John Mallon and Walker Rumsey registered an RBI, as Matt McDermott went yard for a two-run RBI to tally the seventh and eighth runs for UCCS.

The Orediggers responded by getting one run back in the top of the fourth, but the Mountain Lions kept trying to claw their way back by bringing another two runs across in the fifth inning.

The Matt-trifecta came through for UCCS as McDermott reached base on a walk, while Clark and Berg singled to bring one run across. Bennin then made another RBI appearance by singling through the right side to bring the second run across, giving the Mountain Lions their smallest deficit of the game as the Orediggers led 13-10.

UCCS was able to score three runs in the sixth and two runs in the eighth, but CSM's eight runs over the final four innings kept the advantage in their favor as they brought the final score to 21-15.

With game one in the books, the Mountain Lions will look to bounce back tomorrow as they take on Colorado School of Mines in a double-header, starting at 12 p.m. at Mountain Lion Park.