Events on the same date with a time span render the date 3x then time span

Problem/Motivation

If you enter a single day event with a one hour time span, e.g. Jun 06 2013, 4:00am - 5:00am the following will be rendered on publish:

Jun 06 2013 - Jun 06 2013 to Jun 06 2013, 4:00am - 5:00am MDT

The solution seems simple enough. Render instead Jun 06 2013, 4:00am - 5:00am. Seems it isn't that simple. Events with the same start and end time are equally whack:

Jun 06 2013 - 4:00am MDT

Seems that single day events are operating on a whole different plane. Completely ignoring my best attempts at hacking theme_commons_events_date_display_range_advanced in commons_events.module. My best result is still quite sad:

Jun 06 2013 - 4:00am - 5:00am

Rather than:

Jun 06 2013, 4:00am - 5:00am

So I'll leave my hacky patches off this issue. Line 502 suggests that Line 168 of date.theme holds insightful magic. I can read, but I can't figure out how to override date.theme.

Proposed resolution

Ask for insight. I'd be happy to work on a patch if someone can point me in the right direction... somewhat more specifically than see Line 168 of date.theme ;)