GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After clinching their fourth straight Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Regular Season title, the nation's 11th-ranked Colorado Mesa University Softball Team will gun for a third straight conference tournament title at home starting on Thursday.
 
By virtue of the regular season title, the Mavericks are once again the host and top seed for the 8-team, double-elimination tournament which will be played Thursday-Saturday at the CMU Softball Stadium.  This is the fourth consecutive year that the Mavericks have hosted.

Daily tickets are now on sale at www.cmumavericks.com/tickets or at the gate.
 
Live statistics and streams for all of the tournament games can be seen at the links above.
 
Tournament format
 
The tournament begins at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday with the first of six total games that day.  The Mavericks will play No. 8 seed CSU-Pueblo in Game 4, scheduled for 3:15 p.m.  Two elimination games will follow at 5:30 and 7:45 p.m.
 
On Friday, another six games will be played as the field will be reduced to three teams and determine the first team into Saturday's championship game, which is slated for 1:15 p.m. after Game 13, which will commence Saturday's action at 11 a.m. 
 
The if-necessary game would follow the championship at 3:30 p.m.
 
A complete bracket can be seen at the link above.
 
On a RMAC Tournament Roll
 
The Mavericks have won their last eight RMAC Tournament games as they went 4-0 in both 2017 and 2018.
 
Come Early
 
The Mavericks will receive their official RMAC Championship plaque and banner prior to their opening round game against CSU-Pueblo on Thursday.  Several individual honors will also be handed out prior to the game as well.
 
Streaking into the tournament
 
The Mavericks swept last week's RMAC Pod Weekend series in Lakewood, Colorado winning all four games.  The Mavericks came from 3-1 deficits in both games against the host Colorado Christian University Cougars, clinching the RMAC title with the 4-3 win in the first on Friday.  The Mavericks also defeated New Mexico Highlands twice in between.
 
The Mavericks have now won five straight and 27 of their last 28 games overall.
 
Incredible senior class
 
To date, the Mavericks' senior class has posted an incredible 178-33 combined record, good for a .844 winning percentage.  The Mavericks seniors have won four RMAC regular season titles in their career and will be gunning for a third straight RMAC Tournament title this weekend.  They are trying to wrap up a fourth straight NCAA Division II Tournament bid and have reached the 40-win mark in all four years of their careers.
 
Make it a dozen
 
This year's Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title, is the Mavericks' conference record-extending 12^th RMAC title.  They have now won four straight and five out of the last six.
 
The Mavericks ended up with a 35-4 conference record this year, winning the crown by 5 ½ games over Colorado Christian, which ended up with a 28-8 RMAC record.
 
The Mavericks are now the first program to win four consecutive RMAC titles since Nebraska-Kearney won four straight from 1996-99 after claiming a 1995 Mile High Intercollegiate Softball League title before the RMAC officially resumed official sponsorship of the sport in 1996.
 
The Mavericks also won RMAC titles in 1982, 1983, 1989, 1992, 2000, 2002, 2007 and 2014.
 
The Lopers, who are no longer RMAC members, are second in conference history with seven crowns.
 
Closing in on another No. 12
 
Should the Mavericks earn a spot in this year's NCAA Division II Tournament, it would also be their 12^th such appearance.  They have been included in the field of 64 for each of the last three years.  The Mavericks, who went 1-2 while hosting a regional for just the second time in program history last year, are 15-22 all-time in NCAA Tournament play.  They also qualified in 1997 and 1998, in three straight years from 2000-02, and again in 2009, 2010 and 2012.
 
Still sixth in the Regional Rankings
 
Despite continuing to have the region's best overall record at 42-7, the Mavericks once again remained in the No. 6 spot of this week's NCAA Division II South Central Regional Rankings that were released for the third time on Wednesday.  Those rankings, will be updated one more time with results of this weekend's conference tournaments and will form the seeding and at-large selections for the NCAA Division II Tournament selections, which will be announced on Monday (May 6) at 8 a.m. MDT on www.ncaa.com.
 
The Mavericks are now one of two RMAC teams in the top 10 as Dixie State moved up one spot to No. 9 as the Colorado School of Mines fell out of the rankings.
 
Texas A&M-Kingsville (41-8) continues to hold down the top position as Lone Star Conference members still hold down each of the top five and six of the top eight spots.  The rest of the top six remained nearly the same with Texas A&M-Commerce, West Texas A&M, Tarleton State and Cameron following in the No. 2-5 spots.  Tarleton State switched spots with West Texas A&M to third in this week.
 
Elsewhere, St. Mary's (Texas) moved up one spot to seventh flip-flopping with Angelo State, who is now ranked eight.
 
Heartland Conference representative Oklahoma Christian moved into the rankings in the No. 10 position.
 
The tournament champions from each of the three conferences will receive automatic berths into the NCAA Division II Tournament.  Five other teams from the region will be selected at-large based on the final regional rankings.
 
To the victors, go the spoils
 
The Mavericks dominated the RMAC's post-season awards, which were announced on Tuesday.  The Mavericks had a league-high six First Team All-RMAC selections, led by RMAC Player of the Year AnnMarie Torres and RMAC Pitcher of the Year Kimbri Herring.
 
The Mavericks also had 13 total All-RMAC selections, including two Second Team honorees and five honorable mention picks.  They also had three Gold Glove honorees.
 
At the Summit
 
Maverick junior Hailey Hinson will be recognized before Thursday's game as the 2019 RMAC Summit Award.  The award is given to the student-athlete participating at the championship with the highest overall GPA.  Ties are broken by the number of credits.
 
Hinson, a junior accounting major out of Windsor, Colorado, has a perfect 4.00 GPA.  She was named to the First Team RMAC All-Academic Team last week for the second straight season last week.
 
Smart Ones
 
The Mavericks placed a league-high four members on the RMAC All-Academic First Team that was announced on Wednesday.  Leading the group was senior pitcher McKenzie Surface, who was named as the RMAC Academic Player of the Year for the third straight year.  She was joined on the first team by Kaila Jacobi, a now 3-time selection, Hailey Hinson, another repeat selection, and Kellie Mrofcza, who was named to the first team this year after being an honor roll selection in each of the past two years.
 
The Mavericks also had seven honor roll selections this year in Lexie Comer, Alexandria Dufour, Tayah Gerber, Bailey Kleespies, Alexa Samuels, Sarah Staudle and AnnMarie Torres.
 
No place like home
 
The Mavericks have posted an impressive 21-2 record at the CMU Softball Stadium this year.  They are hitting an incredible .411 as a team at home and have outscored their visitors, who are hitting just. 190, by a 220-37 count.  The Mavericks have tallied 15 mercy-rule wins at home this season and have hit 33 home runs and 94 extra-base hits.  Opponents have just 91 hits in total.
 
The Maverick pitching staff has allowed just 26 earned runs in 131 home innings, good for a 1.71 ERA, and has pitched a shutout in 10 of the 21 home games.
 
On an individual basis, the Mavericks have seven different players who have hit .400 or better at home including AnnMarie Torres (.556) and Sarah Staudle (.533), who are both well above .500.  Torres also has a 1.000 slugging and .650 on-base percentage at home.
 
Kaila Jacobi has also hit 11 of her 15 home runs at home this season.
 
Inside the circle, Kimbri Herring and McKenzie Surface both have 10-1 records.
 
Mercy, Mercy, Me
 
The Mavericks picked up another 5-inning mercy-rule win on Saturday when they defeated New Mexico Highlands, by a 13-2 score.  The Mavericks scored five runs in the first inning and four each in the second and third and did not have to bat in the fifth as the "home team" in that game.  The Mavericks have now recorded 21 mercy-rule wins this season, 20 of which have come in just five innings. 
 
In 2018, the Mavericks posted 24 mercy-rule victories.
 
Scoring leaders
 
The Mavericks continue to lead the NCAA Division II statistics in scoring in terms of both total runs and runs per game.  Through 49 games, the Mavericks have scored 415 total runs, which is good for a 8.47 per game average.
 
Benedict sits second in the country for scoring average at 8.26, having tallied 314 runs in 38 games.  Augustana, which is ninth in average, is the only other NCAA Division II to have scored 400 or more runs this year, recording 404 in 55 games.
 
The Mavericks scored 30 more runs last weekend.
 
As a team, the Mavericks also rank second in the country for slugging percentage at .610, on-base percentage (.453) and rank third for batting average (.359).
 
They also sit sixth in doubles per game (2.02) and home runs per game (1.33).
 
 A total of 282 NCAA Division II teams are included in the NCAA statistics.
 
Joining the home run club
 
Freshman Lauren Wedman joined the club of home run hitters as she hit her first collegiate homer on Friday against New Mexico Highlands.  Wedman is the 12^th different Maverick to have gone long this year.  The Mavericks have hit a RMAC-leading 65 home runs season, an average of 1.33 per game that ranks CMU sixth nationally.
 
Kaila Jacobi leads the team and is tied for the RMAC lead with 15 home runs.  She is also tied for eighth nationally.  Her last home run, a 2-run go-ahead shot in the fifth inning against Colorado Christian on Friday proved to be the RMAC title-clinching blast.
 
AnnMarie Torres is also fourth in the RMAC for home runs with 13 and sits in a 29^th place tie in the national statistics with that total.
 
Shutouts
 
The Mavericks recorded their RMAC-leading 15^th shutout of the season on Friday, when they and starting pitcher McKenzie Surface blanked New Mexico Highlands, 8-0.  That total ranks the Mavericks in a tie for 11^th nationally and leads the RMAC by three over Dixie State.
 
Kimbri Herring has tossed a RMAC-leading eight individual shutouts this season, three more than any other.  She is tied for 12th nationally with that total.
 
Herring has 19 career shutouts, trailing only teammate McKenzie Surface (25) for the most in Maverick history.  Surface has three shutouts this season, including her no-hitter against Regis on Apr. 14.
 
Finalist
 
Prior to be named as the RMAC Player of the Year on Tuesday, AnnMarie Torres had been named as one of the 25 finalists for the NFCA/Schutt Sports Division II Player and Pitcher of the Year awards last week.
 
She leads the RMAC and is currently ranked in the nation's top 10 for total RBIs (2^nd, 64), RBIs per game (4^th, 1.31), on-base percentage (3^rd, .606), walks (9^th, 0.78), batting average (10^th, .485) and slugging percentage (10^th, .873).
 
Safe at first
 
Ann Marie Torres, CMU's first baseman, has reached base safely in 34 consecutive games.  She had a 12-game hitting streak from Mar. 3-30 and had a 15-game hitting streak through Friday, which was snapped on Saturday against New Mexico Highlands when she went 0-for-1 while being hit by a pitch and recording a sacrifice fly.  Torres has recorded a hit in 28 of her last 30 games.
 
Scoring runs is as easy as 1-2-3
 
The Mavericks' normal 1-2-3 hitters in the lineup are all at the top of RMAC for runs scored.  Kellie Mrofcza leads the conference with 61 runs.  Meanwhile, Brooke Doumer is second with 59 while AnnMarie Torres is third with 55.  They combined for 14 runs last weekend.
 
Thanks to this combination, the Mavericks have done a tremendous job of getting out to early leads and have outscored their opponents by an impressive 71-16 margin in the first inning.
 
One more for 100

The Mavericks hit six more doubles in their four games last week and no have a RMAC-leading 99 this year.
 
The streak reaches 35
 
The Mavericks remained in the No. 11 spot of this week's NFCA (National Fastpitch Coaches Association) Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll, which was released on Wednesday (May 1).  The Mavericks have now been nationally-ranked in 35 consecutive polls dating back more than two years to Mar. 22, 2017. 
 
The Mavericks received 234 points in this week's poll, 16 more than a week ago, in this week's polling of 16 NCAA Division II head coaches, with two representing each of the nation's eight regions.
 
The Mavericks are still the RMAC's only nationally-ranked team but are still the fourth highest ranked team in the South Central region behind three other teams in the top 10.  That group is led by No. 3 Texas A&M-Kingsville, No. 7 Texas A&M-Commerce and No. 9 West Texas A&M.  Texas A&M-Kingsville is receiving two first place votes while Texas A&M-Commerce moved up a spot.  West Texas A&M dropped three spots.
 
Another South Central Regional team in Tarleton State remained 19^th in this week's poll.
 
In 2018, the Mavericks were ranked in all 14 editions of the poll, including the preseason and post-season poll, which saw the Mavericks end up in the No. 16 spot.  They were ranked eighth in the 2018 preseason poll and were No. 1 for seven straight weeks in the midst of their 37-0 start to last year's campaign.  They were ranked in the top three of all 12 regular-season editions of the poll.
 
The Mavericks were also ranked in 13 of 15 polls in 2017, beginning that year ranked 19^th in the preseason and finishing 11th.
 
Nation's top offense
 
In 2018, the Mavericks led all of college softball with their .398 team batting average, which smashed the RMAC record of .369, which they had set the year prior.  The batting average was also the best of any Division II team since 2009.
 
The Mavericks also led Division II in doubles per game (2.55) last year, cranking out a RMAC-record 135 to crush the former RMAC record of 112, set by Mines in 2009.  The 135 doubles are the fourth most in Division II history while the per game average was the fifth highest.
 
CMU was also second in Division II for scoring (9.58 runs/game), winning-percentage (.906), slugging percentage (.643) and on-base percentage (.461) last year.  They also hit 1.30 home runs per game to rank fourth in the country.
 
The Mavericks scored 508 total runs to break the RMAC record of 452, set by MSU-Denver in 2010.  They also recorded 442 RBIs to break the Roadrunner's former RMAC record of 413, set in 2009.  The 508 runs scored were the seventh most in Division II history.
 
Doing it with the glove as well
 
The Mavericks also played solid defensive ball in 2018, committing just 37 errors while finishing the year ranked eighth in Division II with their .972 fielding percentage.  Their opponents were guilty of nearly 100 more errors (128) and fielded at just a .914 clip.
 
The Mavericks have only made 33 errors in their first 49 games this year and are fielding at a .972 clip so far this season, the best mark in the RMAC, and the 15^th best nationally.
 
Three straight 40s
 
The Mavericks have now reached the 40-win mark in each of the last four years and have seven such seasons in the NCAA Division II portion of their history, which dates back to 1992. The 2016 Mavericks went 40-13 before posting back-to-back 48-win seasons in 2017 and 2018.
 
The Mavericks also won 40 or more games in three straight years from 2000-02 winning a school-record 49 games in 2002 (49-13), two years after going 44-12 while reaching the Division II Women's College World Series in 2000.  The 2001 team went 41-12.
 
The Mavericks need to record seven post-season wins to tie and eight to break the school-record.

Against the rest of the field
 
The Mavericks have played against all seven of the other RMAC Tournament qualifying teams this season and have a winning record against six of them.  They split a 4-game series with the Colorado School of Mines, a potential second game opponent this weekend.  In total, the Mavericks went 18-4 against the rest of the RMAC Tournament field this season.  They were a perfect 17-0 against non-qualifying teams.
 
The Last Time We Met
 
The Mavericks played CSU-Pueblo just three weeks ago defeating them in two hard-fought games during a RMAC Pod Series as the CMU Softball Stadium on Apr. 13 and 14.  Winning those games, 4-1 and 6-2, the Mavericks have now won 10 straight in the rivalry with the ThunderWolves, who were one of the two teams (MSU Denver) to defeat the Mavericks in the 2016 RMAC Tournament, which is the last the Mavericks failed to win.