This Week's Matchup
The regular season comes to an end this weekend as the University of Colorado Colorado Springs baseball team (19-27, 14-14 RMAC) hosts Colorado School of Mines in doubleheader action on both Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7 with first pitch set for 12 p.m. each day. At the conclusion of Saturday's doubleheader, nine Mountain Lions will be honored for Senior Day with Jonathan Cowles, Zac Dammel, Aaron Faragallah, Joseph Harris, Nate Heflebower, Jaeden Hegmann, Brian Marquez, Walker Rumsey, and Henry Ryan playing in their final home game as a Mountain Lion.
 
Game Coverage
Live Stream: https://www.rmacnetwork.com/gomountainlions/
Live Stats: https://gomountainlions.com/sidearmstats/baseball/summary
 
Last Time Out

• The Mountain Lions split their first series of the season after taking two from Colorado State University Pueblo last weekend.
• The series started with offensive fireworks in the first game as a combined 42 runs were scored with the ThunderWolves coming out on top, 22-20. Five different Mountain Lions walked away with a multi-RBI game as starting catcher Tyler Richardson drove in a game high five RBI on 3-for-5 hitting that included two doubles and a home run.
• Saturday's doubleheader saw a split with he ThunderWolves taking game one at a final of 6-2 and the Mountain Lions bouncing back to take game two, 8-6. CSU Pueblo held UCCS to two runs off six hits in the game one loss with Kit Wigington owning the two RBI off a two-run home run in the top of the sixth. Wigington kept his bat hot in game two by belting two home runs and driving in four-RBI in the game, one of which represented the go-ahead home run to help lift the Mountain Lions to their first win of the series.
• In game four, UCCS pulled off another come from behind win by downing the ThunderWolves 10-5. Freshman Evan Langston threw 4.2 innings and allowing five runs on seven hits as Jonathan Cowles and Joseph Harris entered to combine for 4.1 innings of relief work that resulted in no run, no hits, and four strikeouts.  

 
RMAC Standings

• The Mountain Lions hold strong at fifth sixth place in the conference standings as they sit tied with Colorado School of Mines at a 14-14 conference record to remain in RMAC Tournament contention.
• On a three-game losing streak is Colorado Mesa (32-12, 19-9 RMAC) who dropped three of four games to Colorado Christian University as the Mavericks remain atop the standings. Regis is currently in second (27-22-1, 20-12 RMAC) with MSU Denver (28-18, 17-11 RMAC) and CSU Pueblo (26-20, 17-11 RMAC) filling the third and fourth spots.
• CCU can still move their way into the conference tournament at 16-29 overall record and 12-16 RMAC record as New Mexico Highlands (15-31, 10-18 RMAC) and Adams State (8-34, 5-23 RMAC) sit in eighth and ninth, respectively.

 
The Series

• UCCS trails the all-time series against Colorado School of Mines 8-13 with the Orediggers taking the two most recent games after winning 6-5 and 8-1 during the RMAC Pod series in April.

 
Scouting Colorado School of Mines

• The Orediggers (29-16, 14-14 RMAC) have won five of their last six games having come off a 3-1 series win against Adams State last weekend where they outscored the Grizzlies 38-23.
• Boasting the conference's lowest ERA are the Orediggers at a 5.35 ERA and second lowest hits allowed per nine innings average of 10.38. CSM has gone right after opposing batters by averaging the second least walks allowed per nine innings at 2.60 while owning the RMAC's best strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.42, fourth best in DII) and WHIP (1.44).
• Heading Mines' pitching staff as the team's ace is graduate student Tyler Blomster who holds the lowest ERA in the league at 2.50. Blomster is 7-2 in 11 appearances and 10 starts having given up 19 earned runs in 68.1 innings pitched. Blomster has posted 60 strikeouts and has thrown his way to a 1.04 WHIP and 6.00 strikeout-to-walk ratio with each leading the RMAC.
• Outside of Blomster, Kevin Zapanta is tied with Blomster for the second most wins in the conference at a 7-2 record while also holding a 5.72 ERA in 11 appearances and 11 starts. Zapanta has fanned a team high 74 batters which ranks third in the RMAC.
• Oredigger relievers Rodney Gregg and Zachary Kriethe have been the go-to out of the bullpen with each holding sub 4.00 ERA's at 3.31 and 3.89, respectively. Kriethe (37.0 IP) has claimed four saves on the year and has limited the opposition to a team low .219 average.
• Offensively, Mines has outscored their opponents 320-249 with a team batting average of .309. Leading that charge is sophomore Luke Folsom who is batting .422 (fourth in RMAC) with a Division II leading 24 doubles. Folsom's hits have come in bundles with 22 multi-hit games as he's driven in a team high 47 RBI with a .765 slugging percentage and .495 on-base percentage.  
• Redshirt junior Danny McDermott is second on the team with 34 RBI and batting .263 for the year as Adam Houghtaling has added 27 RBI behind a .347 average with nine home runs and nine doubles.

 
Hot Takes

• Hitting for extra bases has been the Mountain Lions' specialty with a season slugging percentage of .532 that ranks third in the RMAC and 21^st in DII.
• One of the top slugging percentages in the RMAC is a result of the second most doubles in DII (128) and the third highest doubles per game average in the country (2.78) as the Mountain Lions have also hit out 64 total home runs on the year.
• UCCS has launched one or more home runs in 13 straight games with two or more doubles in five of the last six games.
• Redshirt freshman Kit Wigington continues to get the job done at the plate by leading the team in batting average (.442), hits (65), doubles (16), slugging percentage (.823), on-base percentage (.476), and OPS (1.299).
• Wigington is also 10^th in DII in batting average, fifth in slugging percentage, and fourth in the country for hits per game (1.76).
• Freshman Macully Sehr has increased his reached base streak to 21 consecutive games, marking the longest streak by any Mountain Lion this season. Sehr also adds a .363 average with 11 doubles and 21 RBI for the season.
• Redshirt sophomore Tyler Richardson has been a key component of the UCCS offense with multi-hit games in five of his last seven games where he has also driven in 11 RBI with six doubles and two home runs.
• Kiichi Sato and Wigington are tied for the team lead in doubles at 16 with Sato maintaining a .307 average in a team high 42 starts this season.
• The UCCS pitching staff is coming off their highest strikeout count in over four years after tallying 15 punch outs in Friday night's game against CSU Pueblo.
• Jonathan Cowles picked up his team leading sixth win after coming in with just his second relief appearance this season as the graduate student allowed no runs and no hits in the 10-5 win over CSU Pueblo on Sunday.
• Freshman Evan Langston remains a perfect 3-0 for the year with a team low 5.40 ERA in 12 appearances, three starts, and 36.2 innings on the bump.
• Jon Sotto moved to above a .500 pitching record by improving to 3-2 after making his 12^th appearance and allowing just two hits in 1.2 innings of work.
• Freshman reliever Brock Weiss bagged his fourth save of the season, tying him for the second most saves in the conference.     

 
UCCS Under Head Coach Dave Hajek

• Dave Hajek, who led UCCS to its first RMAC championship in program history, is in his sixth season as the Head Coach of the University of Colorado Colorado Springs baseball program in 2022. He's coached the only MLB Draft pick in Zach Hall and the only All-Americans in Matt McDermott, Matt Clarke, Jake Anderson, and Evan Richards.
• In six seasons, Hajek holds a .544 winning percentage with a 133-116 overall record that includes, four RMAC Tournament appearances, one RMAC Tournament Championship, a 5-7 RMAC Tournament record, and one NCAA Tournament appearance.

 
Upcoming Games

• UCCS Baseball will await the announcement of the RMAC Tournament bracket at the conclusion of games this weekend.

 
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As a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs competes in 16 varsity sports in NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics.