GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The nation's top-ranked Colorado Mesa University softball team banged out 29 hits, including 10 doubles, a triple and a home run while holding visiting Fort Lewis College to just five singles en-route to a pair of 12-0, 5-inning run-rule victories over the Skyhawks on Saturday in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action at the CMU Softball Stadium.
 
The mercy-rule wins, their 18^th and 19^th of the season, allowed the now 34-0 (24-0 RMAC) Mavericks to sweep the 4-game series without conceding a run.  All four wins came via the mercy-rule as the Mavericks outscored the Skyhawks 42-0 throughout the weekend after taking 8-0 and 10-0 wins on Friday afternoon.
 
Every player on the Maverick roster saw time throughout the day as the Mavericks scored three runs in the first inning of both games before a 8 and 6-run outbursts later cemented the victories, which are CMU's 35^th and 36^th straight at home, a streak that dates back to the beginning of the 2017 campaign.
 
Their 34-game winning streak to begin this campaign is now equal to the 11^th longest streak in NCAA Division II history.
 
The Mavericks also now also won 17 straight games over the Skyhawks who slipped to 10-28 overall and to 4-20 in the RMAC heading into a key series with New Mexico Highlands (6-26, 2-21 RMAC) next week.
 
CMU heads out to Spearfish, S.D. to face Black Hills State (8-20, 8-12 RMAC) next weekend.
 
Game 1
 
McKenzie Surface recorded her second 2-hit shutout in as many days as she needed just 99 pitches to move to a perfect 17-0 on the year and within a single victory of Melanie Meuchel's CMU record of 67 career wins.  After recording 11 strikeouts on Friday, Surface downed 10 Skyhawks on strikeouts on Saturday while handing out just two free passes.
 
No Skyhawks advanced past second base as Surface, who has a RMAC-best six shutouts to her credit, had her best stuff in the later innings as she retired each of the last eight hitter she faced, fanning four of them, to reach double-figures for the fifth game this season.
 
Meanwhile, the Mavericks scored early and often as their recipe of success was cooked up once again.
 
After Surface overcame a 1-out walk and single to strikeout the Skyhawk side in the top of the first, the Mavericks went to work offensively as Alexandria Dufour hit an infield single before stealing second and moving to third on a wild pitch after Brooke Hodgson drew a walk.  AnnMarie Torres then drilled a double to left to plate CMU's first two runs before Abby Toller, who went 6-for-7 in three starts throughout the series, hit an RBI single to score Torres.
 
Leading 3-0 at the time, Surface got out of another mini-jam in the second as the Skyhawks left two more runners on base.  Hodgson then hit a double in the bottom of the second as Dufour came home with CMU's fourth run on a Skyhawk error in left field.
 
Surface then allowed a 1-out walk to Angelique Elemen in the third before starting her streak of eight straight retired Skyhawks.
 
In the bottom of the third, the Mavericks banged out nine hits and scored eight runs as four different players hit doubles in the inning to extend the lead to 12-0.   Torres, who went 2-for-3 with three RBI and two runs to lead the Mavericks, was one of them.  Kaila Jacobi and Zoe Pakes also had two hits, including a double, apiece in that frame alone.
 
Freshman Tayah Gerber, one of the many substitutes brought in by CMU Head Coach Ben Garcia, then recorded her first career hit to highlight the bottom of the fourth before Surface tallied her ninth and tenth strikeouts in a 1-2-3 top of the fifth.
 
Game 2
 
Kimbri Herring got the start in the circle for CMU in the second game and recorded five strikeouts while allowing just two hits in her three innings of work, good for her 13^th win of the season.
 
Offensively, the Mavericks scored three runs in the first and six more in the second to put the game out of reach early. 
 
Maggie Manwarren led the game off with a bunt single before Dufour hit a triple to the left-center field fence to put the Mavericks up 1-0.  Hodgson then hit a 2-run home run off the scoreboard to extend the lead to 3-0 and her hitting streak to 21 consecutive games.
 
In the second, the Mavericks scored six runs on seven hits as Dufour, Jacobi and Kellie Mrofcza each hit a double while Hailey Hinson hit a pair of singles in that frame alone.
 
Hodgson, who went 4-for-6 with three RBIs on the day, then hit a RBI single to plate Manwarren, who led off the inning with a single before stealing second.  That put the Mavericks up 10-0 before CMU added two more in the fourth on pinch-hit 2-run double by Surface as the Mavericks once again had the opportunity for the reserves to see significant playing time.
 
Meanwhile, Hodgson came into the pitch the fourth and fifth innings as she surrendered just one single to close out the series.