SPEARFISH, S.D. – The Black Hills State Yellow Jackets (18-14 (16-8 RMAC)) will head to Golden, Colorado after their series versus Colorado School of Mines (8-26 (7-16 RMAC)) was moved from Spearfish to Golden due to weather. The Yellow Jackets are looking to bounce back from losing all four games versus MSU Denver this past weekend. The Yellow Jackets are now sitting in fifth in the RMAC after this past weekend.

GAME DETAILS
•    Location: Golden, Colo. (Joe Coors Jr. Softball Field)
•    First Pitch Friday: 12 PM and 2 PM MST
•    First Pitch Saturday: 11 AM and 1 PM MST

BLACK HILLS STATE STORYLINES
•    Black Hills State enters the series versus Colorado School of Mines sitting in fifth place in the RMAC after losing the four games to MSU Denver. BHSU will play their third straight road series this weekend after weather forced the team to move the series to Golden. 
•    The Yellow Jackets had trouble putting pitching and hitting together versus MSU Denver as the Roadrunners scored 37 runs in four games, while BHSU only scored 14 and nine of those came in game two. MSU Denver had the pitcher of the week, who held BHSU to 0 ERs in two starts. BHSU struggled to get runs across and really had no answer for MSUD's fast and hard-hitting offense. 
•    BHSU is currently one of the top 40 teams in the country in multiple categories. They are 15th in sacrifice flies (15), 38th in hits (285), 11th in doubles (62), 16th in doubles per game (1.94), 39th in walks (108), 36th in RBIs (176), 19th in on-base percentage (.416), 38th in RBIs per game (5.50), 39th in hit by pitch (23), 31st in batting average (.334), and 34th in slugging percentage (.486).
•    Black Hills State entered this season ranked ninth in the preseason coaches' poll and is coming off the best season in the program's D2 history after going 15-32 (14-28 RMAC) last season. They are currently in fifth after winning 16 of their first 24 conference matchups.  
•    Head Coach Ashlyn Englehorn enters her second season as head coach of the Yellow Jackets, she has a record of 33-46 with BHSU and a career 53-95 record as a head coach after spending two years with Crown College. Her 50th win came in game 3 versus Chadron State. 
•    Freshman catcher Desi Hernandez is leading the team in batting average with a mark of .417, which is ninth in the conference. She is third on the team in runs with 25, while leading the team in on base percentage with a .500 clip, which ranks fifth in the RMAC. She is currently second on the team and seventh in the conference in RBIs with 31, while being second on the team and seventh in the conference in RBIs per game with a 1.00 clip. She is also third the RMAC in hit by pitches with seven and is 33rd in the country in runners caught stealing with seven. Hernandez is coming off one of her worst series of the year, where she went 3-14 with a double, a RBI, and a run. 
•    Senior first baseman Ashlynn Pauwels is one of the top players in the entire RMAC. She is 11th in the RMAC with a .413 batting average, while also ranking second in the conference and 22nd in the country with 37 RBIs. She also ranks second in the RMAC in RBIs per game (1.19), and total bases (79). She ranks 24th and 27th in the country in each respective stat. She is also fourth in the RMAC and 24th in the country in home runs (9), and fourth in hits (43) Pauwels is a one-time RMAC Player of the Week (2-18-25). She tied the BHSU D2 record for RBIs in a game with 5 against Adams State. She officially made it to her 100th career hit as a Yellow Jacket in game two versus CSC, and her second home run versus CSC in game 3 made her the program's all-time leader in career RBIs. She hit .615 against Chadron, while hitting three home runs, scoring five runs, batting six runners in, and reaching 17 total bases. She currently has a hit in 18 of the last 21 games. She went 5-12 from the plate against the Roadrunners while having four RBIs, a homer, and a double with two runs and nine total bases.
•    Tyler Whitlock has jumped up to third in batting average with a .375 clip. She leads the team in runs with 31, which is fourth in the RMAC. She has a perfect stolen base percentage going 14-14 on stolen bases this year. She is second in the RMAC with 14 steals and is also second in steals per game (.45). She leads the RMAC in doubles with 11 and is third triples with four. She hit 5-14 (.357), with two runs and a double in the series versus MSUD 
•    Alyssa Wong has had a great start to the season. She has a .315 batting average, is second on the team in on-base percentage with .484 and has 20 walks and 15 RBIs. She is second in the RMAC with .71 walks per game. She is coming off a series versus Regis where she went 2-8 with two runs, two doubles, a walk, and a hit by pitch.
•    Sophomore Pitcher Laci Peskey has been one of the best pitchers in the country this season. She is currently fourth in NCAA D2 in strikeouts with 134 and is ranked 12th in victories (13), 14th in complete games with 13, eighth in innings pitched (117.1), 25th in saves (2), 25th in games started (15), 33th in strikeouts per seven innings pitched (8.4), 29th in pitching appearances (21), and 39th in strikeout/walk ratio (4.96). She is also third in the RMAC in WHIP (1.10) and is fourth in ERA (2.76). She is putting up historic numbers as she already set the BHSU record for wins in a season and has tied the record for most strikeouts in a single season. She is already a three-time pitcher of the week this season (2-3-2025, 2-18-2025, 3-4-2025). She is coming off a series versus MSU Denver, where she had her first bad outing of the year allowing eight earned runs and 12 hits in only 5.1 innings. She settled down and only allowed three earned runs in game three, but went 0-2 in both starts. On the batting side she hit 2-5 with two doubles, an RBI, a run, and a walk. She is hitting .333 with seven RBIs, seven runs, five walks, three doubles, and a home run.

COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES STORYLINES
•    Colorado School of Mines enters this series having lost 13 of the last 16 games versus the best teams in the RMAC and is sitting in eighth with a 7-16 RMAC record. Mines is coming off a 1-3 series versus Regis and has only won one conference series all year
•    CSM had an incredible offensive performance versus Regis putting up 38 runs, but unfortunately, they allowed 48. This included games that scored 11-14 and 10-16. They have only been run-ruled three times in this 16-game stretch. They put up 10 plus runs in three of the four games and allowed 10 plus runs in three of the four games.
•    Colorado School of Mines pitching has been something to be desired. They are ranked in the bottom 25 in hits allowed per seven innings (11.39). They are also 10th in the RMAC in ERA (6.32) and WHIP (2.23) and have the worst fielding percentage (.937) in the conference. However, offensively, they are one of the best teams in the country in walking (109) and hitting home runs (25). They are ranked 38th and 35th respectively and lead the RMAC in the former category. 
•    Head coach Tobin Echo-Hawk is in the middle of his first season at CSM after spending the last six at UTEP and five before that at Portland State. He has a career 258-360 record and is 8-26 in his first season at CSM. He has not had a winning season in eight years.
•    Kendall Aragon is the batting average leader so far for the Orediggers. Aragon was named 2024 Second Team All-RMAC last season and has a .364 batting average so far this season. She also has a team-leading .425 on-base percentage. She has 21 runs scored and 15 RBIs. She is fourth in the RMAC with 10 doubles, has three triples and is 4-4 on stolen base attempts. She went 9-17 with four RBIs, four runs, and five extra base hits versus Regis in the previous series
•    Cassidy Chvatal is one of the three players on the team with a .300 or better batting average (.308). She has a 1.167 OPS with a .760 slugging percentage and is second in the RMAC and is 22nd in the country with 37 RBIs. She leads the country with 14 home runs and is fourth with .41 home runs a game. She is also 27th in the country with 79 total bases. Against the Rangers, she went 6-12 (.500), scored six runs, had 11 RBIs and four home runs over the four games.
•    Lexie Semeyn has a .295 batting average, but with a 1.105 OPS and a .682 slugging percentage. She has 22 RBIs, 22 runs scored, eight home runs, and eight doubles. She is ninth in the country and second in the RMAC in toughest to strike out with a .307 strikeout percentage. She also leads the team with 19 walks. She went 4-13 from the plate versus Regis but had three doubles and a home run with one RBI and five runs scored in the four-game series. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    BHSU is 10-31 all-time versus Colorado School of Mines and has only won two of the last eight matchups. They did win a series versus the Orediggers in 2022.
•     Last year, BHSU split with CSM 2-2 with BHSU being run ruled in the first game, before answering back with a run-rule of their own. They took home the third game in a 2-1 pitcher's duel before losing the last one 6-13.