GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The No. 2 Colorado Mesa baseball team swept a doubleheader from the MSU Billings on the second day of the Courtyard by Marriott Leadoff Weekend. The doubleheader sweep sends head coach
Chris Hanks into elite company as it gave him 900 wins in his career.
Hanks, the winningest coach in both program and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference history, is now No. 10 among active coaches with 900 wins and third in winning percentage at .714. He is the 29
th NCAA Division II coach to reach the 900-win milestone in their career.
In the opening game of the day, the Mavericks scored 15 runs on 12 hits and benefitted from six Yellowjacket errors in a 15-11 win at Suplizio Field.
Colorado Mesa got on the board in the second inning scoring five runs in the frame.
Haydn McGeary hit his first home run of the season, a solo blast off the scoreboard in right center field.
Caleb Farmer had an RBI single in the inning that scored
Harrison Rodgers. Two batters later,
Tanner Garner hit a two-run double to center field followed by a
Matthew Turner RBI single as the final dagger in the inning.
The Mavericks struck again in the bottom half of the third inning on back-to-back home runs by
Spencer Bramwell and
Harrison Rodgers.
Colorado Mesa would get four more in the fourth, three in the sixth and one in the seventh.
McGeary finished the game with three hits, three runs scored and three runs driven in.
MSU Billings would have just four runs entering the sixth inning but scored two in the sixth, five in the seventh to make it 15-9 entering the ninth inning of play. The Yellow Jackets would plate two runs on a pair of MSU Billings home runs before
Frankie Fitzgerald would strike out the final batter of the inning to end the threat.
Gage Edwards earned the win in relief of starter
Andrew Morris. Edwards went an inning and two-thirds and allowed two runs on one hit, walked two and struck out one in the win.
Morris went four innings and allowed two runs on seven hits, walked two and struck out nine in his first start of the season.
In the night cap, Colorado Mesa scored in five of the six runs the batted in in a 17-5 win over MSU Billings.
Trevin Reynolds battled through his first start of the season allowing five runs on eight hits, walked two and struck out nine in six innings of work to earn the win.
The Mavericks scored five runs on seven hits in the bottom half of the first inning highlighted by the leadoff home run by
Tanner Garner.
Matthew Turner belted his first home run of the season in the bottom of the fifth inning. Turner's blast was a two-run shot to left field. He finished the game 2-for-3 with two runs scored and three runs driven in.
First baseman
Jordan Stubbings had a break out game at the plate, going 3-for-4 with two double, two runs scored and four runs driven in. Stubbings drilled a RBI double to left center in the second inning that brought around
Spencer Bramwell. He followed that up with a two-run double to center field that brought in Bramwell and McGeary.
Bramwell finished the game with four hits and four runs scored.
The Mavericks will be back in action tomorrow afternoon at Suplizio Field. They will take on the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks with Noon as first pitch.
