COMPLETE GAME NOTES

LAST WEEKEND
Colorado Mesa captured the NCAA South Central Region Championship with a 7-6 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville in the championship game. It is the second time in the program's history that they have won the regional championship.

THUR    N.M. HIGHLANDS    W 9-8
FRI    vs. St. Edward's    W 12-8
SAT    WEST TEXAS A&M    W 9-6
SUN    vs. TAMU-Kingsville    L 8-9
SUN    TAMU-KINGSVILLE    W 7-6

RETURN TRIP
The Mavericks are making their second appearance at the NCAA National Finals. They went for the first time in 2009 finishing 1-2. CMU picked up their lone win in the opening game of the tournament against Belmont Abbey, 7-2. The Mavericks fell to Emporia State in the quarterfinal matchup 5-2 then fell to Belmont Abbey 9-2 in the elimination game.

FAMILIAR FOES
Colorado Mesa will see a couple of familiar faces at the National Finals this week. Former Central Region foe Minnesota State is on the same side of the bracket as CMU with the two splitting two games in their history. The other team is Chico State. The Mavericks and Wildcats have squared off numerous times over the years when both schools were in the West Region. Chico holds the all-time series edge but the Mavericks won the last meeting between the two in 2009.

STRONG OFFENSE
The Mavericks sit in the top five in eight offensive categories in the country. They lead the nation in batting average at .361 and are second in hits with 665, four short of West Texas A&M for the top spot.

40
Colorado Mesa has 40 wins this season which is their seventh 40-win season in the last 11 years. The school record for wins is 49 which was set in the 2007 season.

LAYING THEM DOWN
The Mavericks have become excellent bunters over the past few years. This season they have a .754 batting average when bunting with 43 hits and 51 sacrifices.

AK
Senior outfielder Austin Kaiser sits in the top five in seven statistical categories. Kaiser leads the country in batting average (.495), hits (105), and total bases (169.) He is just 13 hits shy of the single-season Maverick mark of 118 set by Joe Dirnberger in 2004.

FILLING IN
Sophomore reliever Matt Allen got the emergency start in game two of the tournament, filling in for the injured Joey Danner. Allen, the All-RMAC First Team reliever, got the no decision in the game with St. Edward's but picked up the save and pitched the final out against Texas A&M-Kingsville in the championship game.

DRIVE EM IN
The Mavericks are 34-5 this season when they score six runs or more in a game and are just 10-6 when they dont reach the mark.

BROTHERLY LOVE
Colorado Mesa Baseball has been known for having brothers on the team and this season is no different. Kevan and Trevor Elcock and Josh and John Ballard are on this season's squad. Kevan Elcock and Josh Ballard are infielders while Trevor Elcock and John Ballard are outfielders.

COACHING TENURE
The Colorado Mesa coaching staff could be one of the longest tenured coaching staffs in all of NCAA baseball. The Mavericks have combined to coach for 94 years with four coaches (Jeff Rodgers, Steve Woytek, Sean McKinney, and Derek Benham) who are Maverick Baseball alums. Head coach Chris Hanks graduated from Colorado Mesa but never played for the Mavericks, and Phil McCowan played at Chico State.

PRESEASON RMAC POLL
The Mavericks were picked by the other seven coaches in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference to repeat as conference champions. Colorado Mesa did just that finishing with a 31-7 conference mark, three games up on second place New Mexico Highlands

RMAC TOURNAMENT
Colorado Mesa claimed the RMAC Tournament Championship this season as well. It was the first time since 2006 that the Mavericks won both the regular season and tournament championship. Five Mavericks were named to the All-Tournament team including MVP Austin Kaiser.

OF - Austin Kaiser (MVP)
C - Austin Wallingford
SS - Nate Robertson
P - Matt Delay
P - Kyle Davis

NCAA REGIONAL TEAM
Colorado Mesa had four players named to the NCAA South Central Region All-Tournament team for their play during the tournament.

C - Austin Wallingford
2B - Derrick Garcia (MVP)
OF - Austin Kaiser
P - Matt Delay

ALL-REGION TEAMS
Colorado Mesa was well represented on both the Daktronics and NCBWA All-Region teams. Four Mavericks were honored by Daktronics and three by NCBWA. Austin Kaiser was named the Region Player of the Year by the NCBWA

Matt Delay - DAK & NCBWA
Austin Kaiser - DAK & NCBWA
Nate Robertson - DAK & NCBWA
Matt Allen - DAK