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Home of the Regis University Rangers
4
Winner Colo. Sch. of Mines CSM 33-17
0
Regis RUBB 27-23-1
Winner
Colo. Sch. of Mines CSM
33-17
4
Final
0
Regis RUBB
27-23-1
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Colo. Sch. of Mines CSM 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 4 5 0
Regis RUBB 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 0

W: Blake Ripp (4-3) L: Kleinsorge, Justin (5-4) S: Zachary Kriethe (6)

Baseball Dugout Huddle
Paul Shepardson / Paul Shepardson Photography

Game Recap: Baseball | | David Wilson, Assistant AD-Communications

No. 2 seed Rangers edge by No. 5 Orediggers in pitchers' duel to begin RMAC Tournament

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — The No. 2 seeded Regis University baseball team opened the RMAC Tournament against No. 5 seed Colorado School of Mines on Wednesday, falling by a 4-0 in a well-played pitchers' duel at Bergman Sports Complex in Grand Junction.

The Rangers (27-23-1 overall) out-hit the Orediggers (33-17 overall) by a 9-5 margin, but Colorado School of Mines was able to take advantage of its three extra-base hits — two wind-aided home runs and a RBI double — to snag the first round win.

With the loss, the Rangers will now look to battle back up through the bracket starting at 11 a.m. Thursday. Regis will play the loser of No. 1 seed Colorado Mesa vs. No. 6 seed University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. That game between the Mavericks and Mountain Lions is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday evening.

"Today's game just came down to timely hits. Mines did a good job of, the two innings they scored, of putting hits together and for us; our hits were spread out throughout the game," said Regis head baseball coach, Drew LaComb. "That's baseball, though. There's failure and it's a hard game. Unfortunately, it happened for us today and we've got to be better tomorrow."

HOW IT HAPPENED: Wednesday's tournament opener featured two of the top arms in the RMAC squaring off in Regis senior right-hander Justin Kleinsorge and CSM senior righty Tyler Blomster. Both starters earned RMAC First Team All-Conference honors prior to the game Wednesday, while Blomster was voted RMAC Pitcher of the Year.

The duo tossed up zeroes through the game's first two innings until Blomster was removed from the game due to injury. The Orediggers' bullpen responded to the challenge as relievers Blake Ripp and Zachary Kriethe came on to toss seven shutout innings, with Ripp picking up the win and Kriethe the three-inning save, for a CSM pitching staff that led the RMAC this season with a 5.45 team earned run average.

"I thought out guys came into the game with a good approach against Blomster. And then when Mines brought it Ripp, a guy we have faced before and did fine against, it just took us awhile to make the adjustment," LaComb said. "We needed to make the adjustments in the batter's box quicker and we just didn't do that today. It was a good learning day for our guys."

Kleinsorge matched the Orediggers' arms pitch for pitch as he went eight strong innings. The RMAC' strikeout leader tied his own career high with 11 punch outs Wednesday while limiting a good Mines offense to four runs on five hits.

"I thought Justin was great and threw one of his best games," LaComb said of Kleinsorge. "He had a great game plan and I thought Roger Riley called a great game behind the plate. It's unfortunate he wasn't rewarded."

The Orediggers got on the board first with a line drive home run by Taylor White in the fifth that just cleared the fence in left. They'd add another run in the fifth with a two-out double by Caden Bonds.

CSM plated two more insurance runs in the sixth inning when Adam Houghtaling drove another ball into the Jetstream blowing out to left for a two-run home run, giving the Orediggers a 4-0 advantage heading into the late innings.

The Regis offense produced its best scoring opportunity in the home-half of the seventh, loading the bases on three straight singles by Matt Marlow, Roger Riley and Trey Harrison.

Unfortunately for the Rangers, Kriethe came on in relief to record back-to-back strikeouts and induce a ground ball to extinguish the threat.

Senior outfielder Brevin Owen and Marlow led the Regis lineup with two hits apiece.

UP NEXT: The Rangers will look to bounce back Thursday when they start their climb back through the RMAC Tournament bracket. Regis will play at 11 a.m. against the loser of the No. 1 Colorado Mesa-No. 6 UCCS game.

If the Rangers win on Thursday, they'd advance on to play again Friday at 3 p.m.

Fans can access the tournament bracket here or on the RMAC Baseball Tournament home page.

"I like our pitching and who we have still to throw. I think we're still in a good position to work our way back into the championship game and I want our guys to believe in themselves," LaComb said. "We just need to take a deep breath, relax and get back to who we are, offensively. I believe in our guys and think we're still in a position to win games the next few days."

NOTES: Prior to the game Wednesday, the RMAC announced its All-Conference teams and individual award winners for the regular season.

Regis had three players — Justin Kleinsorge (First Team), Roger Riley (Second Team) and Colten Chase (Second Team) — named to the All-Conference Teams.

Freshman pitcher Brady Gilmore earned RMAC Freshman Pitcher of the Year, sophomore Levi Padilla took home a RMAC Gold Glove, and LaComb took home RMAC Head Coach of the Year honors.

"I think that's a sign of the program moving in the right direction and getting better. I'm proud of the guys who earned awards because they had great years. And I'm also really proud of a lot of the guys we had close to winning awards who had good years. We have good players in this program," LaComb said. "There's a lot of things we're doing this year that are 'firsts' for our program and signs that we're getting better. But I don't want to get too much into accolades because this is a team sport and we're focused on staying together as a group and winning games right now."
 
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Scoring Summary

Score By Innings
Play CSM RUBB
CSM TOP 5th T White homered to left field, RBI (3-2 SSBBB). 1 0
CSM TOP 5th C Bonds doubled down the lf line, RBI (0-0); I Hsue scored. 2 0
CSM TOP 6th Houghtaling homered to left center, 2 RBI (0-0); M Andrews scored. 4 0

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