KINGSVILLE, Texas— The Colorado Mesa University Softball Team will make their fourth straight and 12
th overall NCAA Division II Tournament performance starting Thursday here at Texas A&M University-Kingsville's Vernie and Blanche Hubert Field.
The Mavericks (45-9) are the fifth seed in the South Central Region and will open up the tournament against fourth-seeded West Texas A&M (31-13) at 3:30 p.m. CDT (2:30 p.m. Mountain). The host and top-seeded Javelinas (43-8) will face No. 8 seed Oklahoma Christian (38-14) in the other opening round game of the South Central Region 1 affair on Thursday evening. The two winners and two losers will then meet on Friday afternoon as the 3-day, double-elimination tournament runs through Saturday.
More information about this weekend's competition as well as links to live stats and live streams for Maverick fans who can not travel to Kingsville can be
found here on the Javelinas' tournament information page.
The team that emerges will then face the South Central Region 2 winner in a best-of-3 super-regional series next Thursday and Friday (May 16-17) at the site of the higher remaining series. The winner of that will then advance to the May 24-27 NCAA Division II National Championships in Denver.
The South Central Region 2 tournament will be played in Commerce, Texas and comprises of No. 2 seed and host Texas A&M-Commerce, No. 3 seed Tarleton State, No. 6 seed Cameron and No. 7 seed Dixie State.
Experienced squad
As mentioned above, the Mavericks will be making their fourth straight NCAA Division II Tournament appearance. Their 8-member senior class has never failed to reach the NCAA Tournament and becomes the first ever Maverick squad to be able to lay such a claim. The senior class has won five NCAA Tournament games as the 2016 and 2017 Maverick squads both went 2-2 and advanced to the regional championship games. Last year's squad hosted a regional and went 1-2.
More Senior Class Incredibles
To date, the Mavericks' senior class has posted an incredible 181-35 combined record, good for a .838 winning percentage. The Mavericks seniors won all four RMAC regular season titles in their career and claimed two RMAC Tournament titles (2017, 2018) as well. They have reached the 40-win mark in all four years of their careers, which is again a first in program history.
NCAA All-Time
The Mavericks are a combined 15-22 (.405) in their previous 11 NCAA Tournament appearances. They have advanced out of the regional twice in 2000 and 2009. In 2000, they won the South Central Regional title and went to the national championship tournament for the first and only time in program history. In 2009, the Mavericks won the Central Regional 2 and moved on to play in a Super Regional in the first year of the current tournament format.
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.
30 out of 33 to move up a spot
Despite dropping their last two games of last weekend's RMAC Tournament, the Mavericks have still won 30 of their last 33 games overall. They went 3-2 last week and moved up a spot to fifth in the final regional rankings after occupying the No. 6 spot in the first three editions.
Region-high
The Mavericks had a region-high six selections to the D2CCA (Division II Conference Commissioners Association) All-South Central Region Teams, which were announced on Wednesday morning. Leading the group was Region Player of the Year
AnnMarie Torres. She and fellow first team selections
Alexa Samuels and
Kaila Jacobi now advance to the national ballot for all-America honors.
Kellie Mrofcza,
Brooke Doumer and
Kimbri Herring were CMU's second team all-region selections.
To the victors, go the spoils
The Mavericks dominated the RMAC's post-season awards, which were announced last week. 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.
All-Tourney Honors
The Mavericks also had three selections to the RMAC All-Tournament Team, which was announced on Saturday. The Maverick honorees were seniors
Kaila Jacobi,
Kellie Mrofcza and
McKenzie Surface.
Mforcza hit .429 (6-14) and had two doubles, a home run and five RBIs during the RMAC Tournament while slugging at a .786 clip. Jacobi also had a home run during the tournament while Surface went 1-1 with a 1.98 ERA in three appearances.
Historical Pitcher
Surface recorded eight more strikeouts in the RMAC Tournament and now has 587 in her career, the third most in RMAC history as she moved past Biana Holley of Regis, who had 586 from 2008-11, during the RMAC Tournament. Surface, who is easily the RMAC's winningest pitcher of all-time with 90 career victories, also became the first pitcher in RMAC history to record four straight 20-wins seasons. She also has four straight 100-strikeout campaigns, tallying 104 this year while going 20-2 with a 2.01 ERA, the second best in the RMAC this season.
At the Summit
Maverick junior
Hailey Hinson was recognized before the Mavericks' first game at the RMAC Tournament last Thursday 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.
Four 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 four more wins to tie and five to break the school-record.
Mercy, Mercy, Me
The Mavericks picked up two more 5-inning mercy-rule wins at the RMAC Tournament last week when they defeated CSU-Pueblo and the Colorado School of Mines by 11-2 and 9-1 margins on Thursday and Friday, respectively. The Mavericks have now recorded 23 mercy-rule wins this season, 22 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 54 games, the Mavericks have scored 440 total runs, which is good for an 8.15 per game average.
Benedict sits second in the country for scoring average at 7.85, having tallied 322 runs in 41 games. Augustana, which is 11th in average, and Alabama-Huntsville, which is fifth in the average, are the only other NCAA Division II teams to have scored 400 or more runs this year. Augustana has scored 423 in 60 games while Alabama-Huntsville has scored 412 in 53.
The Mavericks scored 25 runs during the RMAC Tournament.
As a team, the Mavericks also rank second in the country for slugging percentage at .597, third for on-base percentage (.448) and rank fourh for batting average (.353).
They also sit sixth in doubles per game (1.94) and home runs per game (1.28).
A total of 283 NCAA Division II teams are included in the NCAA statistics.
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.
She leads the RMAC and is currently ranked in the nation's top 10 for total RBIs (3rd, 67), on-base percentage (4th, .594), walks per game (7
th, 0.80). She also leads the RMAC and stands just outside the top national top 10 in batting average (12
th, .466) and slugging percentage (13th, .842).
Safe at first
Torres, who is the Mavericks' first baseman, reached safely in 38 consecutive games, a streak that was snapped on Saturday in the RMAC Tournament's if-necessary game.
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 65 runs. Meanwhile,
Brooke Doumer is second with 64 while
AnnMarie Torres is third with 57. They combined for 12 runs last weekend during the RMAC Tournament.
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 81-16 margin in the first inning. They out-scored their RMAC Tournament foes by a 10-0 margin in the first inning last weekend.
Holding Steady
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 8). The Mavericks have now been nationally-ranked in 36 consecutive polls dating back more than two years to Mar. 22, 2017.
The Mavericks received 222 points in this week's poll, 12 fewer 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. 8 Texas A&M-Commerce and No. 10 West Texas A&M.
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.
With just 12 more runs, this year's Maverick attack would become the RMAC's second best of all-time.
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 34 errors in their first 54 games this year and are fielding at a .974 clip so far this season, the best mark in the RMAC, and the ninth best nationally. They made just one error during the RMAC Tournament.
The Last Time We Met
The Mavericks played at West Texas A&M three times in the 2016 South Central Regional in Canyon, Texas. They won a winner's bracket game on May 6 by a 2-1 score before the Lady Buffs took two 4-3 decisions in the championship and if-necessary game en-route to an eventual NCAA Division II National Championship appearances.
The Lady Buffs also old four other early-season (February) victories over the Mavericks in regular season-play and lead the all-time series 6-1, including a 2-0 neutral-field advantage. The played once in 2013 and 2014 and twice in 2015 and have met twice in Tucson, Arizona and five other times in Canyon.
Other Series Histories
The Mavericks are 1-1 all-time against Texas A&M-Kingsville, having last placed the Javelinas on Feb. 16, 2014 in Canyon, Texas. The Mavericks won that game 4-0. The Javelinas won a Mar. 11, 2006 meeting in Austin, Texas by a 9-1 score.
The Mavericks have never faced Oklahoma Christian although the Eagles are associate members of the RMAC in the sports of men's & women's swimming and diving.
