No. 4 Colorado Mesa heads over the mountains to take on the UCCS Mountain Lions in a four-game series at Mountain Lion Field beginning on Friday, March 22 at 3pm. The Mountain Lions currently sit in sixth place in the RMAC and are coming off their longest conference road trip of the season when they dropped all four games to Dixie State.

Like Colorado Mesa, UCCS had a fairly daunting non-conference schedule where they came out on top more often than not. They started the season off with three straight series wins including wins over nationally ranked Cal Poly Pomona, Central Missouri and Point Loma before dropping three of four to Tarleton State on the road.

Matthew Clarke leads the Mountain Lion offense with a .462 batting average with eight doubles and four home runs. Clarke has multiple hits in 15 of the 19 games he has played in including a four hit and a five hit performance against Cal Poly Pomona to open the season.

Daniel Silva has the best numbers of the UCCS starting pitchers. He is 3-1 with a 4.00 ERA and have allowed opponents to hit just .227.

WEEKEND RECAP
Colorado Mesa swept its second straight Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference series last weekend by defeating ninth-ranked Colorado School of Mines four times. The Mavericks hit .374 in the series and had 18 extra base hits compared to the Orediggers' 12. The pitching staff limited Mines to a .260 batting average and just 15 total runs in the four games. They also recorded 36 strikeouts in 32 innings pitched.

1-2 PUNCH
Seniors JR McDermott and Garrett Hutson have formed a pretty potent 1-2 punch on top of the mound for the Mavericks. The two are a combined 7-0 with 63 innings pitched and 80 strikeouts while only allowing a total of 13 runs (earned or unearned). Both of their ERA's are below 1.80 and opponents are hitting less than .225 off of them. 

SIBLING RIVALRY
For the second straight week, Maverick ace JR McDermott will face one of his brothers. Against Mines, McDermott faced his brother Danny in his first collegiate at-bat and struck him out. This weekend he will take on his other brother, Matt, who plays shortstop for the Mountain Lions. In their only other meeting, Matt got the best of JR with a RBI double in his first at-bat back during the 2017 season. 

MAJOR TRENDS
Some of the trends for the Mavericks early season success include scoring first, leading after the sixth inning and out-hitting their opponent. Colorado Mesa is 15-0 when they score first and 18-0 when they lead after six innings of play. They are also 18-1 when they out-hit their opponents while they are still 2-0 when their opponent out-hits them. 

YOUTH MOVEMENT
Freshman Jahred Butler is this week's youth movement feature. Butler made his second appearance of the year against Mines. Butler pitched a shutout inning, allowing one hit and walked one while earning the win in game four of the series. In his other appearance on the year, he picked up the save after facing just two batters.

THE STREAK OF 40
The Mavericks finished last season with a 43-16 overall record making it six straight seasons that Colorado Mesa has won 40 or more games. The last time the Mavericks didn't win 40 games was in 2012 when they went 39-16 and lost in the Central Regional in Mankato, Minn. The high mark during the streak came in the 2017 season where the team won 50 games and reached the NCAA Championship Final Four that included a win over No. 1 ranked Delta State. 

NATIONAL RANKINGS
Two down, one to go. Colorado Mesa moved up to claim the top spot in this week's National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association Division II poll after the weekend sweep of Colorado School of Mines. The Mavericks are now No. 1 in both the NCBWA poll and the Perfect Game poll after retaining the top spot for the second straight week. They also moved up one spot to No. 4 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper coach's poll. 

THE SKIPPER
Head coach Chris Hanks enters his 21st season guiding the Mavericks and has an impressive 851-346 record, the most wins from a coach in program history. The Carbondale, Colo. native won his 850th game as the Maverick skipper on March 16, 2019 in an 11-0 win over No. 9 Colorado School of Mines. He has led Colorado Mesa to three region championships, a feat that has earned him ABCA Region Coach of the year three times now. Last season, he earned his 10th RMAC Coach of the Year award while leading the Mavericks to the regular season and tournament titles.

UP NEXT
The Mavericks will host RMAC foe Colorado Christian in a four-game set at Suplizio Field next weekend. Colorado Christian is 6-15 on the season and 1-7 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The Cougars are on the road this weekend at CSU-Pueblo for four games.