DENVER— After suffering a heart-breaking 5-4 loss in the opener, the Colorado Mesa University softball team rallied for 12 hits and eight runs while senior pitcher McKenzie Surface picked up her 75^th career victory and her 500^th career strikeout in an 8-3 Game 2 win over the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers, here at the Regency Athletic Complex.
 
The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference doubleheader split puts the nation's 12^th-ranked Mavs at 15-5 overall and 8-2 in RMAC play, just percentage points behind new leader MSU Denver (11-9, 7-1 RMAC), a team the Mavs play next weekend.  The Orediggers are now 6-9 overall and 5-2 in the loop.
 
The Mavericks recorded 20 hits in the two games, including a dozen from their first tree hitters in the lineup.  Junior lead-off Brooke Doumer homered in the opening game and then went 4-for-4 with a triple in the second.  AnnMarie Torres also had five hits on the day going 2-for-3 with a home run in the first and 3-for-3 with a double in the second.  She also had four RBIs from the No. 3 spot in the lineup.
 
Game 1
 
The Mavericks had 1-0 and 4-3 leads but gave up a 2-run double to Kendall Murphy in the bottom of the seventh as the Orediggers claimed their first win in 22 games between the rivals.
 
CMU had taken the early lead on a Torres solo homer to left in the top of the first but fell behind 3-1 when the Orediggers scored three runs on four hits in the bottom of the second.
 
The deficit would be short-lived as No. 2 hitter Kellie Mrofcza hit a 1-out, 2-run homer to center in the top of the third that tied the game.
 
The Mavs then took a 4-3 lead on a lead-off homer by Doumer but could not add to lead leaving two runners on.
 
Meanwhile, Mines managed just one baserunner in the fifth and sixth but cashed in on a hit by pitch followed by an infield single and a Maverick fielding error to begin the bottom of the seventh with Murphy's game-winning hit.
 
The Mavericks out-hit the Orediggers 8-7 in the contest. 
 
Kimbri Herring went the distance and recorded five strikeouts while taking the loss to fall to 6-3.
 
Alexandria Dufour also contributed to the offensive attack with a pair of hits and two stolen bases.
 
Game 2
 
The Mavericks again scored in the opening inning as Doumer tripled to left to begin the inning before scoring two plays later on a Torres RBI single.  The Orediggers would then get out of the inning on a double play but committed a throwing error early in the second.  The Mavericks took advantage banging out four hits to score five unearned runs.
 
Hailey Hinson had the biggest blow with a 2-run triple while Doumer and Torres each had run-scoring singles.  Torres' was for two runs and put CMU up 6-0. 
 
The Orediggers pulled back a run in the bottom of the second on a Boston Ludlow RBI double although the Mavericks scored two more runs to build an 8-1 lead in the fourth.  Kaila Jacobi and Alexa Samuels had RBI singles in that inning.
 
Mines put two runs on the board in the bottom of the fifth but never seriously threatened again as freshman Shea Mauser relieved Surface with two runners on and nobody out in the fifth to earn her first career save.
 
Surface went four-plus innings to remain unbeaten in 2019 at 5-0 and recorded her milestone strikeout in the bottom of the third as Katie Leiker went down swinging for the second out of a 1-2-3 inning.
 
The Colorado Springs, Colorado native is now just three wins away from the RMAC record of 78 career wins and is just the seventh woman in RMAC history to ever reach 500 strikeouts.
 
The Mavericks and Orediggers will tangle in another RMAC doubleheader on Sunday at 10 a.m.