The No. 2 ranked Colorado Mesa baseball team opens the season with the Courtyard by Marriott Leadoff Weekend in Grand Junction beginning Thursday this week. The Mavericks will take on Great Northwest Athletic Conference foes MSU Billings and Northwest Nazarene this weekend along with New Mexico Highlands taking on the same two programs.
 
THE BACKSTOP
COVID Junior Spencer Bramwell returns to the lineup and is one of the many calming forces on the field as the catcher. Bramwell has handled the pitching staff extremely well and has nearly wiped out would be base stealers if and when they do get on. The San Clemente, Calif. native threw out 50 percent of those stolen base attempts a year ago.
 
He was also a huge contributor at the plate in the shortened season. He batted .338 with three doubles, a triple and six home runs in the 18 games that were played. He had a three-home run game against No. 9 Southern New Hampshire during the home opening series that earned him NCBWA national player of the week.
 
TRUE ACE
Converted outfielder Trevin Reynolds has turned into a true staff ace over the last two plus seasons. Reynolds was 3-0 with a 2.60 ERA when the season ended last season. In his final start, Reynolds pitched a complete game shutout allowing six hits, one walk and 13 strikeouts in a win over Regis.
 
Reynolds was the Maverick starting pitcher in the 2019 National Championship game against Tampa where he pitched seven innings allowed three runs on eight hits and struck out three. He had 26 strikeouts in 28.1 innings pitched during the NCAA postseason that year.
 
CHASING 900
With the second win of the season, Colorado Mesa head coach Chris Hanks will have 900 wins in his career. The skipper is already the winningest coach in program and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference history but would move into elite company among coaches across the country. He is No. 10 among active coaches with 898 wins and third in winning percentage (.713) among the top 50 active coaches.
 
If and when he reaches the 900-win mark, he will be the 29^th NCAA Division II coach ever to win 900 games in his career. He currently sits at No. 32 overall in total victories by a head coach and should eclipse a former West Region foe in Lindsay Meggs, the current head coach at Washington, this year as he sits at 908 career wins.
 
NATIONAL RANKINGS
The Collegiate Baseball Newspaper will release their updated National Rankings next week following a month's worth of non-conference games.
 
Colorado Mesa currently sits in the No. 5 position in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) poll despite having yet to play a game this season. South Central Region foe Angelo State tops the poll.
 
SCOUTING THE YELLOWJACKETS
MSU Billings was in good position to make a return trip to the NCAA West Regional last season before the season was halted. They were 11-6-1 at that time with a series win over Point Loma and series sweeps over RMAC foes CSU Pueblo and Colorado School of Mines.
 
Las Vegas native Sam Powers is the top returning position player for the Yellowjackets. Powers batted .382 with four doubles and three home runs when the season was halted. He was 5-for-6 with a double and two home runs in the series opener with Colorado School of Mines last year.
 
Left-handed pitcher Dylan Barkley is the top returning pitcher, in terms of potential dominance, for the Yellowjackets. In 2021, he set a career-high with 10 strikeouts in a start against Western Oregon
 
SERIES HISTORY WITH MONTANA STATE BILLINGS:
Colorado Mesa owns a 9-3 all-time mark with the Yellowjackets with all 12 matchups occurring in Grand Junction. The two teams met last in 2019 with the Mavericks sweeping the four-game series. MSU Billings' last win against the Mavericks came in 2017 when they won the series finale 7-2 to give the Yellowjackets the series split.
 
FUN FACT:
MSU Billings has a number of notable alums listed but for baseball, Dustin Lind is one and is currently on the coaching staff with the San Francisco Giants.
 
SCOUTING THE NIGHTHAWKS
Northwest Nazarene enters the weekend with a 3-1 record after winning the season opening series with longtime rival College of Idaho (NAIA) last weekend. The Nighthawks were 9-7 on the season last year before COVID halted the season. They were 7-1 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference when this happened as well.
 
Senior Ryan Dearing leads the Nighthawks in hitting during the early season. He is batting .444 with a double and a triple and had a 3-for-6 performance in game three of the series with the Coyotes.
 
Fellow senior Sasha Jabusch is the leading pitcher after the first weekend after allowing just one hit, walking two and striking out five in five innings of work. He earned the win in game two of the series.
 
SERIES HISTORY WITH NORTHWEST NAZARENE:
Colorado Mesa is 16-4 all-time against the Nighthawks as their series history dates back to the first meeting that happened in 2003 at Suplizio Field. The Mavericks and Nighthawks met up last season for a four-game series in Grand Junction with Colorado Mesa winning the first three games of the series and Northwest Nazarene the final one. The loss in the final snapped an 11-game winning streak for the Mavericks in the series.
 
FUN FACT:
Northwest Nazarene was established in 1913 as a combination grade school and Bible school as Idaho Holiness School. Among their notable alumni is the First Lady of the State of Idaho Lori Otter.
 
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 (398-90) and in that time, they have not been shutout, a span of 488 games.
 
30 SKIPPER
Colorado Mesa head coach Chris Hanks is in the dugout for his 23^rd season as the skipper of the Mavericks. Hanks has an 898-361 record as the head coach and is the all-time wins leader in Colorado Mesa history as well as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
 
He has led the Mavericks to 17 NCAA Regional Tournaments, four NCAA National Championship Tournament appearances and twice a National Runner-up. He has won the RMAC regular season championship 15 times and nine RMAC Tournament Championships.
 
PRESEASON RMAC POLL
Colorado Mesa was picked to win the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference after receiving all eight possible first-place votes. The Mavericks are seeking their ninth straight regular season title and their seventh straight RMAC Tournament Championship later this season.
 
Colorado School of Mines was picked to finish second followed by UCCS, MSU Denver and CSU Pueblo.
 
The Mavericks were 14-4 when the season was halted last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
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 jump right into Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play with a road trip to Alamosa and a four-game set with Adams State next weekend.