GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – No. 3 Colorado Mesa (5-1) will continue its home stand this weekend with its first four-game series of the season when they host the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks (1-3) at Suplizio Field beginning on Thursday. This will be the first opponent of the season for the Mavericks that isn't ranked.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Colorado Mesa swept the series from No. 9 Southern New Hampshire at Suplizio Field, which marked the second straight series win over a ranked opponent. The team batted .405 with an .802 slugging percentage in the series. They outscored the Penmen 38-10 in the series and limited them to a .248 batting average.
 
The pitching staff had a team era of 2.67 and allowed just four extra base-hits in the series. The staff had ten different pitchers make an appearance with one pitcher making his first collegiate appearance.
 
EARLY HONORS
Junior Spencer Bramwell garnered all kinds of honor this week after his performance in the series against Southern New Hampshire. Bramwell had a monster weekend for the Mavericks in a three-game series sweep of Southern New Hampshire. He batted .538 (7-for-13) with four home runs, seven runs scored and eight runs driven in. In the series opener, he hit three home runs and finished the game with four hits. It was the first time a player homered three times in a game since 2003 for Colorado Mesa.
 
The San Clemente, Calif. native earned not just RMAC Player of the Week honors, but NCBWA Regional Player of the Week accolades which makes him eligible for NCBWA National Player of the Week.
 
For the year, Bramwell is hitting .481 with an OPS of 1.607 with a double and five home runs including nine runs scored and ten RBIs.
 
NEW FACE, NEW LEADOFF
Senior transfer Tyler Parker is now settling into his role on the team and it may have changed in the middle of the Southern New Hampshire series. Parker moved to the leadoff spot in the order and continued to produce. He was 0-for-2 in the role but walked three times and in the early season has a .571 on-base percentage as the leadoff in all games.
 
On the season, he is batting .381 with a double, a triple, and two home runs with nine runs scored and six runs driven in.
 
FRESH FACE
Freshman Jared Ure made his second start and seemed to settle into the role a little more this weekend. In his first start at Nova Southeastern, he lasted just two and two-thirds innings while in his home start on Sunday, he pitched six and two-thirds strong innings. He allowed just one run on ten scattered hits, walked none and struck out four.
 
BEEHIVE BULLPEN
The Mavericks feature four arms from Utah in the bullpen and all have played prominent roles early in the season. Anthony Durbano and Gage Edwards are the older, veteran arms in the pen. Durbano made his first home appearance last weekend and struck out four of the five batters he faced while Edwards has made two appearances and has thrown four and two-thirds innings and struck out four.
 
Freshman Kannon Handy and Jacob Rhoades have combined to pitch four and two-thirds innings and have allowed just two hits and struck out six. Both made an appearance in the series finale with Southern New Hampshire as part of an all-freshman pitching staff on Sunday.
 
SCOUTING THE NIGHTHAWKS
Northwest Nazarene has played just one weekend and two opponents so far. They traveled to Los Angeles to play RMAC foe Dixie State and CCAA opponent Cal State LA, a round robin that featured Colorado Mesa last season. They came out of the weekend winning just one game, the finale against Cal State LA.
 
Two-way player Ben Johnson leads NNU with a .500 batting average (4-for-8) with a double and a home run. In the series finale, he went 2-for-4 with a home run and four runs driven in. He was the starter in game three of the weekend against Dixie State and was tagged with the loss.
 
SERIES HISTORY WITH NORTHWEST NAZARENE:
The Mavericks own an all-time mark of 10-1 against Northwest Nazarene that dates back to the 2004 season with seven of the 11 matchups occurring in Grand Junction. Colorado Mesa earned the two wins last season in St. George, Utah with a 3-2 and an 8-3 win at Bruce Hurst Field. The lone loss of the series took place in Grand Junction during the 2005 season.
 
FUN FACT:
Prior to becoming the head basketball coach at Northwest Nazarene, Scott Flemming was the head coach of India's National Basketball Team. He led the India national team to gold at the South Asian Championship in 2014 and 2015. In 2014, India defeated China at the FIBA Asia Cup for the first time in history. He is now the Technical Director of NBA Academy – India.
 
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
Over the past 15 years, Colorado Mesa has been nearly unstoppable at home in Suplizio Field. They have won over 81 percent of their games (392-88) and in that time, they have not been shutout, a span of 480 games.
 
PRESEASON RMAC POLL
Colorado Mesa was picked to win the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference after receiving all eight possible first-place votes. The Mavericks have won the past eight regular season conference titles and have reached won six straight conference tournament titles.
 
Dixie State was second followed by Colorado School of Mines, UCCS and MSU Denver to round out the top five.
 
Spencer Bramwell, Caleb Farmer and Andrew Morris were all selected as 'Players to Watch' in the conference. All were named to the All-RMAC team a year ago with Morris earning Freshman Pitcher of the Year honors.
 
PRESEASON NATIONAL POLL / TEAMS
Colorado Mesa begins the 2020 season as the No. 3 team in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Coaches Poll behind defending National Champion Tampa and longtime West Region foe UC San Diego. In the National Collegiate Baseball Wristers Association (NCBWA) poll, the Mavericks check in at No. 2 behind Tampa while in the Perfect Game Rankings they will begin at No. 9.
 
The NCBWA released their preseason all-American teams and Colorado Mesa first baseman Jordan Stubbings was named to the third-team. Stubbings finished his sophomore campaign with a .345 average with 20 doubles and 13 home runs.
 
WINNINGEST TEAM OF THE DECADE
The Mavericks will have their names etched in the record book after boasting 440 wins from 2010-2019 and will go down as the Winningest Team of the Decade. The Mavs' .753 winning percentage was fifth best during the time frame.
 
During the decade, they were one of just two schools to qualify for the NCAA Division II tournament all ten years, making three appearances in the Championships. That included a pair of runner-up finishes in 2014 and 2019. The Mavericks had a 29-22 record in the NCAA Tournament during the decade.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Colorado Mesa will continue on its long home stand next weekend when they welcome their third opponent of the season that they have never faced before in the Minot State Beavers. Minot State is a part of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) and is playing at Missouri Western State this weekend.