GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— With eight quick first-inning runs behind her, Colorado Mesa University junior Kimbri Herring threw her first career no-hitter in another dominating Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Softball Tournament effort as the nation's third-ranked and tournament top-seeded Mavericks advanced to Saturday's championship game with a 10-0, 5-inning, mercy-rule victory over the No. 2 seed Colorado Christian University Cougars.
 
The Mavericks, now 46-3 on the year and 3-0 on the weekend, banged out seven hits in the first inning alone and finished with 10 to send the Cougars (42-12) into an 11 a.m. Saturday morning elimination game, which will determine the Mavericks' opponent in the 1:15 p.m. championship.  If the Mavericks are not able to win, they would have another shot in a 3:30 p.m. "if necessary" game to successfully defend their 2017 RMAC Tournament title.
 
Herring, who is now 3-0 with two shutouts and 25 strikeouts while allowing just five hits in 17 innings pitches throughout the tournament, fanned five and faced just one more than a minimum after a first-inning Maverick error was wasted by the Cougars.
 
Meanwhile, CMU senior lead-off Maggie Manwarren then chopped the opening hit of the game over Cougar pitcher Jennifer Romero, two plays before scoring on the first of two Brooke Hodgson RBI doubles to give the Mavericks the opening run.
 
The hits kept coming as AnnMarie Torres plated Hodgson with a laser to center before Zoe Pakes hit a 2-run single through the left side to make the score 4-0.
 
A Hailey Hinson RBI single and a Cougar throwing error then allowed the lead to grow to six before an Alexandria Dufour single completed the first-inning scoring with a 2-run single.
 
The Mavericks, who have now outscored their opponents by a huge 87-9 margin in the first inning of games, would then add two more runs in the third thanks to another Cougar error followed by a Hodgson double, her national-leading 26^th of the season.
 
Meanwhile, Herring retired each of the final 14 batters she faced to tally her seventh shutout of the season.  She is the second Maverick this season to throw a no-hitter this season, joining McKenzie Surface who tossed one on Feb. 25 against Chadron State.
 
The Mavericks top' three hitters in the lineup went a combined 6-for-8 with five runs scored and five RBIs.  Manwarren who is now tied with Hodgson for the RMAC's single-season runs scored record at 76, had two hits and a walk while stealing her RMAC-leading 44^th base.  Dufour went 2-for-3 with three RBIs while Hodgson added another run scored and her two RBIs, which gives her 97 on the season.

She hit two home runs, including a grand-slam, in the Mavericks' earlier 10-2 win over MSU Denver finishing that game with seven RBIs while becoming the RMAC's single-season record holder, one of three conference records she broke in the morning win.