GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Riding a 5-game winning streak and coming off a fourth series sweep in five tries this season, the 19^th-ranked and 19-1 Colorado Mesa University Softball team will make its longest road trip of the 2021 regular season traveling 656 miles to Spearfish, South Dakota to face Black Hills State University in a 4-game Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference weekend series.
 
Doubleheaders against the 3-20 Yellow Jackets will be played beginning at noon on Saturday and 11 a.m. on Sunday at Yellow Jacket Field.
 
For those that can not attend in person, a live stream of the series can be accessed through the RMAC Network.  Live statistics from BHSU can also be accessed at the links above.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks reached double figures for runs and out-scored visiting New Mexico Highlands, 44-11, as the Mavs remained perfect at home with a 4-game Easter Weekend series sweep over the Cowgirls last Friday and Saturday.  Three of the Maverick wins came via the mercy-rule.
 
The Mavericks hit .416 as a team throughout the weekend banging out 42 hits, including 19 for extra bases.  Lauren Wedman, Ellie Smith and Nicole Christensen terrorized the NMHU pitching staff as they combined for 23 hits, including four home runs, and 29 RBIs throughout the series.
 
Wedman went 8-for-11 (.727) with 11 RBIs and eight runs scored.  She also drew three walks and had a sacrifice fly finishing the weekend with .733 on base and 1.545 slugging percentages. Smith hit six doubles and a home run and was 8-for-12 (.667).  Christensen hit two home runs and was 7-for-11 (.636) overall.  She drove in seven runs.
 
Smith also led the Maverick pitching staff posting a 0.91 ERA in 7 2/3 innings of work.  She struck out 10 Cowgirls and allowed just five hits, including just three in a complete game 13-1 victory in the series finale.  Paige Adair also went 2-0 in the circle throughout the weekend to improve to a RMAC-best 10-1.
 
Scoring Leaders
 
With 198 runs in their first 20 games, the Mavericks are leading the NCAA Division II statistics in runs per game by a substantial margin.  Their 9.90 run per game average is a full 1.10 more than Clafin's mark of 8.80 in just five games.  Regis, third at 8.72, and Colorado Christian, fifth at 8.42, are also in the top five nationally in the No. 3 and 5 spots.
 
The Mavericks are also tied for fifth in total runs scored.  West Texas A&M leads the country with 205 runs scored but has played 28 games, eight more than the Mavs.  Young Harris (204, 27 games), Lubbock Christian (201, 31 games) and Carson-Newman (199, 26 games) have also scored more runs than the Mavs but have played more games.  Southern Nazarene has tallied 198 runs in 30 games as well.
 
The Mavericks have reached double-figures for runs in 13 of their 19 victories this season, scoring a season-high 18 in their home-opener against the Colorado School of Mines on Mar. 6.
 
Scoring is nothing new

Scoring big numbers is nothing new for the Mavericks.  In 2018, they won the NCAA statistical title for runs scored after scoring a RMAC-record setting 508 runs in 53 games, good for a 9.58 per game scoring average.
 
In 2019, the Mavericks scored 447 runs in 56 games, good for a NCAA-leading 7.98 run per game average.
 
Sister/Brother Diamond Rivalry
 
With the dominant CMU baseball and softball teams over the recent years, a little friendly intra-department rivalry has formed between the squads who try to one-up each like brothers and sisters often do in a typical family relationship.
 
The Maverick baseball team is currently 18-2 and ranked first in the country.  That squad has already scored 300 runs in their first 20 games, good for an average of 15.00 per game, which leads Division II by three runs per game over second place Wilmington and 3.7 more than third-place Regis, which also stands third in the country for scoring in softball.
 
The 300 total runs are 18 more than second place North Georgia, which has played 30 games.
 
The Maverick baseball team does have an advantage in this rivalry built into the score-fest as there is no mercy-rule in collegiate baseball.  Additionally, half of the baseball games are 9-inning contests, where all softball games are scheduled for seven.
 
Mercy, Mercy Me
 
Impressively, the Mavericks have ended 11 games prematurely this season via the mercy rule.  CMU has recorded at least one mercy-rule victory over each of the five opponents they have faced this year.
 
Recipe for success
 
The Mavericks' scoring success is easy to understand when looking a little deeper at the statistics.  The Mavericks rank second in the country for batting average (.389), and slugging percentage (.661) and stand third in the country for on-base percentage (.463) and home runs per game (1.55).  The Mavericks lead the RMAC in each of those categories.
 
Triple-Triple
 
In last weekend's series with New Mexico Highlands, Maverick outfielder extra-ordinate Lauren Wedman hit three triples.  She leads the RMAC with four triples this season, seventh most in Division II.  Wedman's four triples already have her tied for tenth on CMU's single-season record book chart.

Now Maverick Assistant Coach Kelly Reece (Adams) holds that record with nine, set in 2000.
 
Two + Two = Four
 
Meanwhile, Ellie Smith, who wears uniform No. 4, has been a fan of counting by two's in her total bases count this season.  The redshirt sophomore utility player recorded six doubles in the series with New Mexico Highlands last week giving her a national-leading 15 on the season, quite a feat considering the Mavericks have played just 20 games.  The CMU single-season record is 27, set by Brooke Hodgson in 2018.
 
Top of the Heap
 
Lauren Wedman is pacing the RMAC in numerous statistical categories.  Her impressive .593 batting average is 56 points higher than any other RMAC player.  She is also slugging at 1.186 clip, leading teammate Ellie Smith by 186 points.  Wedman also has a league-best .662 on-base percentage and 35 runs scored.  She also leads the RMAC with four triples and is tied for third in the league with seven home runs.

Don't forget about me
 
Meanwhile, Smith leads the conference in RBIs with 40, three more than Wedman.  She also has a conference-leading 15 doubles and 22 extra-base hits to her credit and is tied with Wedman and Nicole Christensen for the team-lead in home runs.
 
Sweet 16
 
Nicole Christensen is riding a 16-game hitting streak for the Mavs, the longest of this season.  She is hitting .452 on the year and has a .839 slugging percentage to go along with 27 RBIs.  She has also stolen six bases.
 
Top staff
 
The Mavericks also continue to lead the RMAC in pitching as well.  They have a team ERA of 2.80, well below MSU Denver's mark of 3.42.
 
Individually, Paige Adair is second in the RMAC for ERA at 1.76 and paces the conference with her eight wins (10-0) and four shutouts.  Opposing hitters are hitting just .226 against her, the second best mark in the RMAC.  Ellie Smith ranks fourth in the RMAC with her 1.89 ERA.  She is 6-0.  Shea Mauser is 3-1.
 
Defending Champions
 
The Mavericks are 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 completed seasons.
 
With their 19-1 record, the Mavericks lead this year's conference standings by a 2 ½ games over Colorado Christian, which is 14-1 in the conference and 15-4.  The Cougars' series with Regis last weekend was postponed due to COVID-19 related issues within the Rangers' athletic department.  CCU is at the Colorado School of Mines, which is in fourth place in the RMAC standings at 16-8 for a Saturday/Sunday series this weekend.
 
The Cougars will come to Grand Junction on Apr. 24-25.
 
National Poll
 
Despite having the best record (by winning percentage) of any team in the poll, the Mavericks remained a season-high 19th in this week's NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll, released Wednesday (Apr. 7).  The Mavericks received 110 points in the polling of 16 coaches from around the country and are still only Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference team in the poll.
 
Home Sweet Home but still quite strong anywhere
 
With an 12-0 home record this year, the Mavericks are now 105-16 at home since the start of 2016, good for an .863 winning percentage. 
 
The Mavericks are an impressive 97-16 at home since the start of 2016, good for an .868 winning percentage.  They are nearly as strong when playing anywhere winning 83.1 percent of their games, going 216-44 since their current RMAC title winning streak began in 2016.
 
About the Yellow Jackets
 
The Yellow Jackets enter this weekend's series in last place in the RMAC standings with a 3-20 record.  They did snap a 19-game losing streak in their last outing, claiming a 6-3 home win over CSU Pueblo in the last of a 4-game series against the ThunderWolves.  They had been swept by UCCS, Adams State, MSU Denver and Colorado Christian previously after winning two games in their neutral-site season-opening series against New Mexico Highlands.
 
Bell Luebken leads the team with a strong .440 batting average and has hit six doubles and five home runs.  She has also scored 19 of the team's 89 runs.
 
Three other 'Jacket hitters have 13 RBIs each, including Crystal Amaral, who has hit four home runs while hitting .310 overall.  The others are Shayla Tuschen, who is hitting .304, and Baileigh Hubbard, who has six doubles and two home runs to her credit.
 
McKayla Perry is hitting .333 but has struck out 17 times in 54 at bats.
 
Darian Gottfried leads the Yellow Jackets in ERA at 4.50 but has not started a game, coming on in relief six times spanning 4 2/3 innings.  Amaral is the team's work-horse with 67 innings pitched over 13 appearances and 11 starts, nine of which she has completed.  She has a 6.27 ERA and 2-10 record.
 
The Yellow Jackets rank 11th in the RMAC for batting average at .269 and stand ninth in the league for ERA at 6.90. 
 
Series History
 
The Mavericks have won each of the last 17 games between the teams since Mar. 3, 2013 and hold a 22-3 lead in the all-time series between the clubs.
 
The Mavericks have not been to Spearfish, South Dakota since 2016, when they won both games against the Yellow Jackets during a 3-team RMAC pod.
 
The teams did not face each other in the brief 2020 season.  They did play four times in 2019.  The Mavericks won all four games via the mercy-rule in five innings, outscoring BHSU by a 54-6 margin.
 
Up Next
 
After this weekend's series, the Mavericks will return home to begin an 8-game home stand on Apr. 17 against UCCS.  That day's doubleheader, which begins at noon, will be CMU's annual Swing for Life Pink Day.