The Colorado Mesa University baseball team will travel to Phoenix, AZ this weekend for a three-game series with the Grand Canyon 'Lopes. This could be the last series ever between the two schools as Grand Canyon will move to Division I and be a part of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) next year. Here is a quick preview of the matchup

Grand Canyon 'Lopes (4-2)
Friday-Sunday, February 22-24 | 7:00pm, 7:00pm, 12:00pm (MST) | Live Stats | Live Video
All-Time Series Record: Grand Canyon leads 86-49 in the series
Last Season's Record: 2-2

GCU Preview: The 'Lopes are currently 4-2 on the season and are coming off a three-game sweep of St. Martin's over the weekend. GCU won by scores of 10-2, 7-1 and 5-4 over the Saints. The Mavericks and 'Lopes do have a common opponent in the early season as both teams have faced UC San Diego. Both team had identical 1-2 records against the Tritons.

Grand Canyon will have strong pitching for the second straight year. Jorge Perez is the staff ace and is 1-1 with a 2.25 ERA and nine strikeouts in his two outings. Freshman Andrew Naderer has the best numbers on the staff. Naderer has a 1.54 ERA and has struck out 14 in 12 innings of work this season.

At the plate, the 'Lopes are led by switch-hitting catcher Steven Swingle. The junior is hitting at a .400 clip and has two doubles and two homeruns on the year. Grand Canyon will also start a freshman at shortstop in Paul Panaccione who is fielding .964 in his first year.

Last Season: The two teams split the four game series in Phoenix. Colorado Mesa won the opener 3-2 and took game three 4-2 while the 'Lopes took game two 4-2 and the series finale 10-9.

Mavericks Preview this weekend: Colorado Mesa is coming off a series win over Montana State-Billings where they took three of the four games in the series. They dropped the opener 5-2 but came back and won by scores of 12-2, 6-2 and 14-12 to push their overall record to 4-3.

Garrett Carpenter had an excellent weekend, batting .636 (7-for-11) with a .909 slugging percentage and was on-base over 69 percent of the time. He was named the RMAC Player of the Week for his performance.

Joey Danner got his first start of the season last weekend and didnt disappoint. Danner pitched six shutout innings to pick up his first win as a Maverick and earned RMAC Pitcher of the Week honors. He struck out five and allowed only three baserunners in his start.

Projected Lineup:

Colorado Mesa and Grand Canyon Projected Lineups
Maverick	Yr.	2013 Stats	Position	'Lope	Yr.	2013 Stats
Colton Schoelkopf	Jr	.267, 2 2B, 5 RBI	C	Steven Swingle	Jr.	.400, 2 2B, 2 HR
Kevin Mitchell	So.	.273, 1 3B	1B	Michael Pomeroy	RJr.	.400
Braden Box	Sr.	.269, 1 3B	2B	Chris Lindmark	Jr.	.286
Nate Robertson	Sr.	.435, 1 2B	SS	Paul Panaccione	Fr.	.143, 1 3B
Colton Little	Sr.	.100	3B	Derek Mendoza	Sr.	.304, 1 2B, 1 3B
Mitch Corwin	Sr.	.357, 1 2B	LF	Brandon Smith	Fr.	.250, 2 2B
Austin Kaiser	Jr.	.379, 1 2B, 5 SB	CF	Ryan Moore	Jr.	.091
Garrett Carpenter	Jr.	.500, 1 2B, 1 3B	RF	Harlyn Griffiths	Sr.	.273
Tim Fowler	Sr.	.350, 2 2B	DH	Garrett Jeffries	Fr.	.417

Projected Rotation:

Colorado Mesa and Grand Canyon Projected Rotation
Maverick	Yr.	2013 Stats	Position	'Lope	Yr.	2013 Stats
Matt Williams	Sr.	1-0, 1.38, 15 K, 3 BB	#1	Jorge Perez	So.	1-1, 2.25, 9 K
Nolan Snell	Sr.	0-1, 8.11, 2 K, 2 BB	#2	Andrew Naderer	Fr.	1-0, 1.54, 14 K
Joey Danner	Jr.	1-0, 4.32, 7 K, 1 BB	#3	Trent Wilson	Jr.	0-0, 5.87, 8K