DENVER— Senior shortstop Kellie Mrofcza hit a 2-run home run in the top of the fifth inning to help give the Colorado Mesa University Softball team a 4-2 lead and the eventual win by that score as the Mavericks came back to take the second game of a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference doubleheader against the Colorado School of Mines for the second straight day.
 
The Orediggers held on to win the first game 5-4 as the teams split the 4-game weekend series played at MSU Denver's Regency Athletic Complex.
 
The nation's 12^th-ranked Mavericks are now 16-6 overall and 9-3 in the RMAC standings, just percentage points behind 8-2 Colorado Christian, which swept a 4-game series with Fort Lewis to take over the RMAC lead.
 
Mines moved to 7-10 overall and to 6-3 in the conference.
 
Game One
 
The Orediggers jumped out to a 5-0 lead tallying single runs in the first and third innings book-ending a 3-run Clara Larson triple in the second.
 
Meanwhile, the Mavericks left five runners on base in the opening four innings before breaking through for a big 4-run fifth, highlighted by a 3-run home run by freshman Jordyn Hays.
 
However, the Maverick managed just one more hit in the final two innings against reliever Claire Stringfellow as the Orediggers held on for the win despite being out-hit, 9-6.   Claire Stringfellow earned the save while Sydney Marchando picked up the win after spreading eight hits and four runs over five innings.
 
Maverick first baseman AnnMarie Torres had a pair of hits in the game as Kimbri Herring had a strong 4 1/3-inning relief stint giving up just two hits and five strikeouts after relieving freshman Shea Mauser, who fell to 1-1 with the loss.
 
Game Two
 
The second game was back-and-forth and saw the Orediggers take an early 1-0 lead on a Kendall Murphy homer to center to begin the bottom of the first.
 
CMU would rally and took a 2-1 lead in the top of the second as Tegan Woosley doubled home Bailey Kleespies before Lauren Wedman hit a sacrifice fly to score Nicole Christensen with the go-ahead run.
 
However, the Orediggers answered in the bottom of the third with a Larson solo homer to tie the game at 2.
 
In the fifth, Maverick lead-off Brooke Doumer hit a 1-out double before Mrofcza recorded her go-ahead blast, good for her fifth home run of the season.
 
Meanwhile, senior pitcher McKenzie Surface was in good form giving up just two runs in five innings of work before Herring came on in relief with one on and nobody out in the bottom of the sixth.  She retired all six batters she faced, striking out two to earn her first save of the year.
 
Surface, now 6-0 on the year, earned the win and now has 76 in her career, just two shy of the RMAC record.
 
Offensively, the Mavericks were out-hit, 8-7.  Mrofcza had two hits in the game and three on the day.
 
Up Next

The Mavericks will be back here next weekend for a 4-game series with MSU Denver (11-11, 7-3 RMAC).  Doubleheaders are slated for noon on Saturday and 11 a.m. on Sunday.