GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Third-ranked Colorado Mesa will open the 2020 season on Thursday with a three-game series against No. 16 Nova Southeastern in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. It will be the first-time in program history that the Mavericks will play a Sunshine State Conference opponent in a series.
 
TWO-HEADED MONSTER
Juniors Caleb Farmer and Jordan Stubbings have formed a two-headed monster since they stepped into the lineup as freshman in the program. The two have started 95 and 96 games respectively in their two years and have combined for 35 homeruns and have helped the team to 96 wins while hitting in the middle of the order.
 
Stubbings, a 2020 preseason all-American selection, has hit .359 with 31 doubles and 24 home runs in his two seasons while Farmer, a two-time all-RMAC pick, has hit .347 with 31 doubles and 11 home runs.
 
GOLDEN BOY
Junior shortstop Chase Hamilton earned an award that no one at Colorado Mesa had ever won before. Hamilton was named the ABCA / Rawlings Gold Glove second baseman a year ago for his glove work. The Chandler, Ariz. native played nearly the entire season at second base before moving to shortstop late in the season and into tournament play.
 
He committed just four errors all season long, all of them came at shortstop with two occurring in the RMAC Tournament and two of them at the NCAA Championships. In tournament play he had 84 chances and helped turn eight double plays.
 
THE BACKSTOP
The Mavericks will turn their attention to Spencer Bramwell to lead the catchers and handle the pitching staff. Bramwell turned heads last season at the NCAA Championships in Cary, N.C. where he was named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team. The junior had seven hits and five runs scored in the five games in Cary.
 
Bramwell batted .371 with 15 doubles and seven home runs during the 2019 season.
 
PROJECTED ROTATION
For this early non-conference series the Mavericks could do a number of things with their rotation and consolidate their pitching into the three games instead of the regular four-game weekend. Expect to see a combination of Trevin Reynolds, Andrew Morris and Ryan Day start on the mound in the opening weekend.
 
Reynolds was brilliant in the postseason a year ago for the Mavs. He finished the season 7-2 with a 3.96 ERA in 61.1 innings pitched. He started the National Championship where he went seven innings and scattered eight hits.
 
Morris, the RMAC Freshman Pitcher of the Year, went 7-1 with a 3.88 ERA in 69.2 innings pitched. He pitched seven innings of two-hit baseball in the NCAA South Central Region Super Regional a year ago against Angelo State.
 
Day, a junior college transfer from Blinn, will likely get the nod in game three of the series. Day pitched in numerous big spots last season for the Buccaneers including a pair of starts against San Jacinto.
 
FAMILIAR NAME
Speaking of Ryan Day, the Day name might sound familiar to recent and longtime Maverick fans alike. Day is the brother of Tyler Day who pitched for the Mavericks for two seasons in 2016-17 and pitched in the 2017 NCAA Championships in Grand Prairie, Texas. Tyler was drafted by the Tampa Rays following his senior season.
 
Day's father, Steve, was a Maverick pitcher from 1990 to 1993 and was drafted following the 1993 season by the San Francisco Giants.
 
CLOSING TIME
With graduation of all-American Will Dixon, the Mavericks have a fairly large void left at the backend of the bullpen. At the beginning of the season, it could be a closer by committee but one name seems to keep popping up as a possible heir apparent, sophomore Josh Danyliw.
 
Danyliw, the 2018 4A State Player of the Year at Valor Christian, pitched just an inning and a third a year ago but coaches have raved about his growth in the offseason.
 
Frankie Fitzgerald and Gage Edwards could also see some late-inning opportunities early as well. Both saw innings in the NCAA Tournament a year ago.
 
SCOUTING THE SHARKS
Nova Southeastern opened their season last weekend with three single games against different opponents. The Sharks dropped their season opener to No. 7 North Greenville 15-9 before a win in game two of the weekend against Tusculum, 5-4. They closed out the weekend on Sunday against the No. 2 team in NAIA St. Thomas with a loss 4-3.
 
Nova opened the season ranked No. 16 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper coaches poll after a trip to the NCAA South Region Tournament a year ago.
 
Two-way sophomore Duncan Pastore leads the Sharks after a highly successful freshman campaign. He garnered Sunshine State Conference freshman of the year, All-South Region, and honorable mention all-American honors a year ago. Expect to see Pastore starting at third base and pitching for the Sharks this weekend.
 
FUN FACT: Nova Southeastern currently has three former players that will be on Major League rosters when the season opens up at the end of March. The most recognizable name is J.D. Martinez, an all-star outfielder for the Boston Red Sox who has won three Louisville Silver Slugger awards in his career. Mike Fiers of the Oakland Athletics, who has thrown two no-hitters in his career and Miles Mikolas of the St. Louis Cardinals who started on the mound in the MLB Playoffs next year.
 
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
The Mavericks will return to colorful Colorado for a long home stand that leads into Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action. The next 15 games will be in the friendly confines of Suplizio Field with nationally-ranked Southern New Hampshire up first. The Penman will play three games against the Mavericks in a matchup of two nationally ranked programs.