GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After getting out to a 4-0 start with a road sweep of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's preseason favorites on last Sunday and Monday, the 4-time defending RMAC Champion Colorado Mesa University Mavericks return home to face the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers this weekend at the CMU Softball Stadium.
Doubleheaders 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 accessed at the link above.
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.
Prior to last Sunday, the Mavericks had gone 357 days since their last game, which came against Mines, this week's opponent, who was also the last team to visit the CMU Softball stadium.
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.
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.
Receiving votes
MSU Denver had been in the "others receiving votes" category of the NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll throughout the early stages of the season. After claiming the series sweep, the Mavericks are now in that category as the only RMAC team represented in the poll.
However, seven Lone Star Conference teams, who along with the RMAC, make up the NCAA Division II South Central Region, are ranked in the top 25, led by No. 5 Texas A&-Commerce. UT-Tyler at No. 10 and Oklahoma Christian at No. 11 also help headline the region's power. West Texas A&M, off to a 12-0 start, is tied for 17
th in the poll while No. 19 Texas A&M-Kingsville, No. 23 Angelo State and No. 25 Lubbock Christian, also provide some depth.
Player of the Week Sweep
After their 4-0 start, the Mavericks swept last week's RMAC weekly honors with
Paige Adair claiming the Pitcher of the Week accolade while
Lauren Wedman received the Player of the Week honor.
Adair, a redshirt junior from Aztec, New Mexico, recorded a 2-0 record, a save, a 1.17 ERA and a shutout as she allowed just eight hits in 12 innings worth of work over three appearances during the series with the Roadrunners. Getting the ball for the season-opener on Sunday, Adair tossed a 5-hit complete game shutout, the second of her career, while striking out seven Roadrunners in CMU's 3-0 victory. On Monday, Adair came back to throw two hitless innings of relief to earn what was her fifth career save in CMU's 11-10 victory. Now just one save shy of the CMU school record, Adair then started the final game of the series, picking up the win after giving up just three hits and two runs during CMU's 13-2, 5-inning mercy rule victory.
Throughout the series, she recorded nine strikeouts and held the Roadrunners, one of the RMAC's top hitting team in 2020, to a .195 combined batting average against her.
Meanwhile, Wedman, a redshirt sophomore from Tucson, Arizona, hit .571 and slugged at a 1.143 clip (1.768 OPS) as she went 8-for-14 with two home runs, two doubles, seven runs scored and seven RBIs throughout the series. Wedman recorded at least one hit and scored at least one run in all four games hitting home runs in the first game of each day's doubleheader. She also had three multiple-hit and three multiple-RBI games and went 5-for-7 with five runs scored and five RBIs in Monday's doubleheader, recording two doubles in the final game of the series, a 13-2, 5-inning mercy rule win.
Wedman has now recorded a hit in her last 14 games dating back to 2020 and has reached base safely in 20 consecutive games.
Different ways to win
In last Sunday's series-starting doubleheader, the Maverick pitching staff allowed just one unearned run as they claimed defensive-style 3-0 and 2-1 victories over the Roadrunners. On Monday, the Mavericks started producing a lot more runs, winning the games with their bats. The Mavericks led the third game of the series on Monday by a 10-1 score before giving up nine runs in the bottom of the fifth, only to get a sixth-inning run to take the game 11-10. The Mavericks then continued to roll in the series finale, taking it 13-2 via the mercy rules in five innings.
Throughout the series, the Mavericks out-hit the Roadrunners, 44-24 and hit .376 as a team. They also had 14 extra base hits.
Doubles all-around
The Mavericks also hit 11 doubles in the series and lead the RMAC while ranking second nationally in doubles per game (2.75).
Ellie Smith had four doubles in Monday's doubleheader, two in each game, and finished the series with five herself. She leads the RMAC in total doubles and ranks fourth nationally. She also leads the country in doubles per game (1.25). Freshman
Ally Distler is also in the nation's top 10 for doubles per game at 0.75 after hitting three in the opening series.
Lauren Wedman also hit two doubles and had four extra-base hits to slug at a 1.143 clip while
Alexia Europa had a pinch-hit double as well.
Top Pitching Staff
With three of the lowest five ERAs in the conference last year, the Mavericks lead the RMAC in team ERA at 2.38. They are off to another good start this year, posting a staff ERA of 2.69 last week, a mark that leads the RMAC.
Ellie Smith allowed just one earned run in eight innings last week to post a 0.88 opening-weekend ERA. Like Adair, who has a 1.17 ERA, Smith went 2-0 in the circle.
Freshman sensation
Freshman catcher
Ally Distler had a strong start to her collegiate career last weekend as she went 7-for-14 at the plate, driving in six runs and scoring six others. Hitting .500 throughout the weekend, she was 5-for-7 with five RBIs and five runs scored in Monday's doubleheader. Distler, a Littleton, Colorado native and Columbine High School product also threw out three would-be base stealers from behind the dish.
Home Sweet Home but still quite strong anywhere
The Mavericks are an impressive 93-16 at home since the start of 2016, good for an .853 winning percentage. They are nearly as strong when playing anywhere winning 82.3 percent of their games, going 201-43 since their current RMAC title winning streak began.
Conference Only Schedule
The Mavericks will play a conference-only schedule this year playing 40 games over ten weekends. Half (20) of those games are slated to be at home at the CMU Softball Stadium, including this weekend's series against the Colorado School of Mines.
The Mavericks will also play host to Adams State (Mar. 20-21), New Mexico Highlands (Apr. 2-3), UCCS (Apr. 17-18) and Colorado Christian (Apr. 24-25) while making trips to Fort Lewis (Mar. 13-14), Regis (Mar. 27-28), Black Hills State (Apr. 10-11) and Chadron State (Apr. 30-May 1).
The regular season champion will have the right to host the RMAC Tournament, currently slated to begin May 6 although conference administrators have been discussing moving that back a week now that the NCAA has altered the NCAA 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 have done for basketball.
About the Orediggers
The Orediggers enter the weekend with a 4-4 overall record but are just a game behind the Mavericks and Regis, which swept a 4-game home series with Adams State, in the early season RMAC standings. The Orediggers took three of four games at home with CSU Pueblo on Sunday and Monday.
Stefanie Brunello is hitting .409 to lead the Orediggers thus far in 2021. She has nine hits, including three doubles and a home run and has also drawn five walks to aid her .536 on-base percentage.
Clara Larson and Kylie Redding are also both hitting .364 and have two home runs apiece. They have also combined for 17 of Mines' 40 RBIs. Larson has ten to rank second in the RMAC, while Redding has driven in seven.
As a team, the Orediggers are hitting .302 as six different regulars are hitting over .300 while two others are just under that mark at .294 and .286. However, the Orediggers have been out-scored 64-40.
The Oredigger pitching staff has a combined 6.65 ERA and have allowed opponents to hit .352 against them as five different players, including Redding have seen action. Four of them have started with Redding and Sydney Marchando being the work-horses thus far. Redding has a 1-1 record and 5.79 ERA in 19 1/3 innings spanning four appearances and three starts. She has conceded 28 hits and nine walks and has nine strikeouts. Marchando has throw 17 innings giving up 22 hits and three walks. She also has half (12) of the staff's 24 strikeouts.
Series History
Grand Junction has been a little bit of a place of horror for the Orediggers, who have won just five of the 55 games with the Mavericks since 1994. However, the Orediggers swept a Mar. 7, 2020 doubleheader over the Mavericks last spring before the Mavericks bounced back for 11-0 and 8-0 shutout wins on the second day of last season's series, which ended up being the last of the pandemic-shortened season.
The teams also split a 2019 neutral-field series in Denver after the Mavericks had won the previous 22 consecutive games from 2014-18.
The Mavericks also enjoyed a 48-game winning streak over the Orediggers from 1995-2008 and hold a massive 87-14 series advantage since 1994.
Up Next
After this weekend's series, the Mavericks will hit the road for Durango where they will play at Fort Lewis on Mar. 13-14. The Mavericks then return home for the following weekend (Mar. 20-21), when they will play host to Adams State.
