GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Off to an 8-0 start and ranked 22^nd in the country, the Colorado Mesa University softball team will return to action this weekend when they host Adams State University in a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference series at the CMU Softball Stadium.
 
The Mavericks lead the RMAC standings by a game with their 8-0 conference record while Adams State will enter the weekend with 5-9 overall and 5-7 conference records, but as winners of each of their last four games.
 
The Mavericks were off last weekend due to COVID-19 protocols within the Fort Lewis College program and were unable to play to Skyhawks.  In their previous series against the Colorado School of Mines at home on Mar. 6-7, the Mavericks hit .378 and allowed just four earned runs to sweep the Orediggers.
 
This weekend's series will feature a pair of doubleheaders that will begin at noon on Saturday and 11 a.m. on Sunday.  Fans will be permitted to attend on a reduced-capacity basis under these protocols.  Tickets are still available at www.cmumavericks.com/tickets.
 
The series will also be streamed on the RMAC Network and live statistics can be found here.
 
Defending Champions
 
The Mavericks enter the 2021 season as the 4-time defending RMAC Regular Season Champions having won the 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 titles.  They were also 10-2 and tied for the lead with Colorado Christian and MSU Denver in the 2020 RMAC standings when the remainder of last year's season was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
The Mavericks, who went 16-6 overall in 2020, have won 11 RMAC Championships in their program history, including in five of the last six years.
 
National Poll
 
The Mavericks are in the No. 22 spot of this week's NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll, released Wednesday.  They had also been ranked 22^nd in last week's poll but will be making their 2021 debut as a ranked team this Saturday after not being able to play last weekend. 
 
The Mavericks received 58 points in the polling of 16 coaches from around the country and are the only Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference team in the poll.  The Mavericks were in the "others receiving votes" category two weeks ago after sweeping their season-opening series against MSU Denver, which had been in that category in the preseason and early season polls.
 
Polling Third

Despite the Mavs' recent success, they were picked third in what was the tightest RMAC Preseason Coaches' Polls in conference history.  MSU Denver was picked first in the poll with 113 points while Colorado Christian was tabbed second with 110 points.  The Mavericks, fired up by the poll received 108 total points but proceeded to sweep last weekend's series at MSU Denver.  All three teams split the 12 first place votes evenly, garnering four a piece after each finished 2020 with 10-2 RMAC records.
 
Poll procedures called for each of the league's 12 head coaches to rank their opposition 1-11 without voting for their own squad.  Eleven points were awarded for a first place vote with ten going for a second place vote and so on.
 
Adams State was picked 10^th out of 12 teams in the RMAC.
 
Back-to-Back POW
 
Maverick redshirt sophomore outfield Lauren Wedman was named as the RMAC Player of the Week for the second straight time on Mar. 9 for her efforts in the Colorado School of Mines series.  In that series, she hit .538 (7-13) with two home runs and two doubles while driving in 11 runs.  She also scored six and slugged at a 1.154 clip while recording a .571 on-base percentage and 1.725 OPS.
 
In eight games this season, Wedman is hitting .556 (15-27) and has hit four doubles and four home runs.  She has driven in 18 runs and scored 13 while slugging at an impressive 1.148 pace.  She also has a .600 on-base percentage.
 
Wedman leads the RMAC and ranks fifth nationally for both RBIs per game (2.25) and home runs per game (0.5.0).  She also paces the RMAC in both slugging percentage and batting average, ranking tenth nationally with her slugging percentage and 27^th with her batting average.
 
Wedman has now recorded a hit in her last 18 games dating back to 2020 and has reached base safely in 24 consecutive games.
 
Double Threat
 
Fellow redshirt sophomore Ellie Smith has also been a challenge for opponents both at the plate and inside the circle.  Offensively, Smith has cranked out a RMAC-leading eight doubles, fourth most in the entire country.  Her 1.00 double per game average is tied for the national lead.
 
Smith is second to Wedman in the RMAC for RBIs per game (1.88), recording 15 thus far.  She is hitting .448 and has a .931 slugging percentage with ten extra-base hits amongst her 13 overall.
 
Inside the circle, Smith leads the RMAC with her 1.17 ERA.
 
Top 10 Offense
 
As a team, the Mavericks rank amongst the nation's top ten four different offensive categories, including scoring.  The Mavs are scoring 9.12 runs per game to rank fourth nationally, but are just second behind Regis (9.71) in the RMAC.  The Mavericks also rank sixth in the country for doubles per game (2.38) and have hit 19 in total, but again are just second in the RMAC behind CSU Pueblo, which has 30 doubles in 12 games, a 2.50 per game average.
 
The Mavs also stand tenth nationally for both batting average (.377) and home runs per game (1.38), but trail Regis (.398, 1.50) in the RMAC statistics for those respective categories.
 
CMU is also just outside the nation's top 10 in slugging percentage, ranking 11^th at .623.
 
Don't forget about us
 
With three of the lowest five ERAs in the conference last year, the Mavericks led the RMAC in team ERA at 2.38 in 2020.  They are off to an even better start this year as the 3-person pitching staff of Ellie Smith, Paige Adair and Shea Mauser have combined for a 1.92 team ERA.  That mark leads the RMAC by a wide margin.  CSU Pueblo is second at 3.85, nearly twice as high as the Mavericks.
 
Smith has the best ERA in the conference at 1.17, allowing just two earned runs in 12 innings.  Adair is just behind at 1.22 in nearly twice as many inning, allowing just four total runs, all of which are earned, in 23 innings.  She ranks second in the RMAC for ERA and leads the RMAC with her opposing batting average of .203.  Adair is also 4-0 and has recorded two shutouts and three complete games in her four starts.
 
Shea Mauser has a 3.50 ERA and ranks ninth in the RMAC individually.
 
Home Sweet Home but still quite strong anywhere
 
The Mavericks are an impressive 97-16 at home since the start of 2016, good for an .858 winning percentage.  They are nearly as strong when playing anywhere winning 82.7 percent of their games, going 205-43 since their current RMAC title winning streak began.
 
Conference Only Schedule
 
The Mavericks will play a conference-only schedule, which originally had CMU playing 40 games over ten weekends, although they will now have to reschedule the Fort Lewis series.  Half (20) of those games are slated to be at home at the CMU Softball Stadium, including this weekend's series against Adams State.
 
The Mavericks will also play host to New Mexico Highlands (Apr. 2-3), UCCS (Apr. 17-18) and Colorado Christian (Apr. 24-25) while making trips to Regis (Mar. 27-28), Black Hills State (Apr. 10-11) and Chadron State (Apr. 30-May 1) and to Fort Lewis at some point.
 
The regular season champion will have the right to host the RMAC Tournament, currently slated to begin May 13,  a week later than originally planned after the NCAA has altered the national  tournament format and dates.
 
A different road to Denver
 
Due to effects of the COVID pandemic, the NCAA has reduced the size of the NCAA Tournament from 64 to 48 teams, which means that each of the eight regional tournaments will only include six teams this year, instead of the normal eight.  Additionally, the Super Regional weekend has been eliminated and each regional will be contested with six teams at one site instead of the normal format of two teams hosting separate 4-team regionals before the winners meet in a best-of-3 super regional.
 
The eight regional champions will then head to Denver for the NCAA Division II Championship, which will be held from at MSU Denver's Regency Athletic Complex, site of last weekend's sweep, from May 27-31.
 
The 12 RMAC and 16 Lone Star Conference teams currently make up the South Central Region. 
 
However, the NCAA recently made a very unusual change in men's and women's basketball moving the RMAC to West Region for one year only to help balance the numbers of institutions that were playing during the pandemic-effected winter sports season.  No such announcement has been made for softball nor other spring sports to date, although the CCAA, which includes 11 softball teams in the West Region, announced on Dec. 3 that they would not have a 2021 conference season.
 
The other West Region conferences are the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and the Pacific West Conference.
 
The GNAC announced on Feb. 18 that they plan to conduct a full softball season with six of the league's normal seven softball teams.  Simon Fraser, will not participate due to the continued closure of the U.S./Canada border.  The PacWest also has plans to play a modified softball season in three regional pods as they did for basketball.
 
About the Grizzlies
 
Adams State will enter this weekend with a 5-9 overall record.  They are 5-7 in RMAC play and currently sit eighth in the conference standings.  However, they have won their last four games after sweeping Black Hills State in a Mar. 11-12 series, which was moved up two days due to weather forecasts.
 
The Grizzlies are 5-3 at home but are still winless in six road games, falling twice at CSU Pueblo in non-conference play before being swept by Regis in their first RMAC series.
 
The Grizzlies are a solid offensive team that is hitting .329 as a complete unit that has produced nearly six runs (5.93) per game.  However, the pitching staff has struggled, posting a combined 8.30 ERA to rank 11^th out of 12 teams in the conference.  Seven different pitcher have thrown with four tossing 11 or more innings thus far.
 
Jade Garbiso leads the Grizzly regulars with a .396 batting average and is also one of the main pitchers.  She is 1-2 with a 7.88 ERA inside the circle. She also leads the team with five doubles and is tied for the team lead with 11 RBIs.
 
Tyler Hays, a Grand Junction Central High School product, is right behind with a .398 batting average.  She also has 11 RBIs and has hit five home runs to stand in a tie for second in the RMAC.
 
Samantha McDonald is also hitting .500 with nine hits in 18 at bats over six games but does not have enough at bats to qualify to be amongst the RMAC leaders.
 
Jasmine Garbiso, Jade's younger sister, leads the team with a 6.63 ERA and is 2-0.  She has made seven appearances and has started three games with throwing 19 innings.  Taylor Sandoval has made five starts, going the distance twice.  She has a 1-4 record and 8.11 ERA.
 
Series History
 
The Mavericks have dominated the series with the Grizzlies as of late winning 15 straight games since Mar. 22, 2015.  The Mavericks have also won 67 of the 100 meetings in the Division II era (1992-Present) scoring 726 runs (7.26/game) in that span.
 
The Mavericks have won the last five and six of the last seven games via the mercy-rule posting three straight 9-0, 5-inning victories in the last series between the teams in 2019, played on Mar. 23 and 24 in Grand Junction.  The Mavericks also won three of four games via the mercy rule in 2018 in Alamosa.
 
CMU is 34-10 at home against the Grizzlies in the Division II era.
 
Up Next
 
After this weekend's series, the Mavericks will hit the road for Denver to play a 4-game set at Regis on Mar. 27-28.