GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Coming off a fifth straight Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title, the Colorado Mesa University Maverick softball team is eager to get the 2022 season started and will have the opportunity to do this weekend playing five games against very challenging opposition at the Concordia Kickoff Classic at Great Park in Irvine, California.
The Mavericks, tabbed first in the RMAC and 21
st in the NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Preseason Coaches' Polls, will head out for southern California on Thursday morning in advance of the 21-team tournament that will see the Mavs take on five NCAA Division II West Region and Golden State foes, beginning Friday at 11:15 a.m. PST (12:15 p.m. Mountain) against San Francisco State.
The Mavs will then take on third-ranked and 2021 NCAA Division II National Runner-Up Biola later in the day before facing Chico State and the tenth-ranked and host Eagles on Saturday. The Mavs wrap up the tournament on Sunday at 8:45 a.m. PST (9:45 a.m. Mountain) against Sonoma State.
Fans are encouraged to make use of the
tournament website for complete details on the tournament, including live stat links.
Tickets must also be purchased online in advance through that site and are $15 for a one-day pass or $40 for a tournament pass. Prices for seniors and youth (5-10) are $10 for a single day or $25 for a tournament pass.
UPDATED: A live stream of Friday's game against San Francisco State and Saturday's game against Concordia can be found at the links above. A subscription payment will be required for the San Francisco State game. The Concordia game will be free.
Nation's Best
The Mavericks led all of Division II softball in both winning percentage and scoring in 2021. They went 39-5 overall to lead the country with an .886 winning percentage. They were an even better 34-2 (.944) in RMAC play and went on to win the RMAC Tournament title with a 4-1 mark before going on to the South Central Regional portion of the NCAA Division II Tournament, where the Mavs went 1-2.
The Mavericks scored a national-leading 394 runs in their 44 games and led the country in scoring by a wide margin, putting up an average of 8.95 runs per game.
Defending Champions
The Mavericks will enter the 2022 season as the 5-time defending RMAC Regular Season Champions having won the 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 and 2021 titles. They were also 10-2 and tied for the RMAC standings lead with Colorado Christian and MSU Denver in the 2020 RMAC standings when the remainder that season was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
CMU also won the RMAC Tournament title in 2017, 2018 and 2021 and advanced to their fifth straight NCAA Division II tournament last spring.
Since beginning their RMAC title winning streak in 2016, the Mavericks have posted a 236-48 overall record, good for an .831 winning percentage.
Plenty Back
Maverick Head Coach
Mercedes Bohte (Lovato), named as the RMAC Coach of the Year in 2021, returns the services of two consensus first team all-Americans, three first team and five overall All-RMAC selections to the roster in 2022.
Leading the way is 2021 RMAC Player of the Year
Ellie Smith, who along with outfielder
Lauren Wedman, received the first team all-America plaudits from both the NFCA and D2CCA last season.
2021 RMAC Pitcher of the Year
Paige Adair for her final season as a Maverick while Second Team All-RMAC catcher
Ally Distler and Honorable Mention All-Conference third baseman
Nicole Christensen lead a strong supporting cast, that also includes returning starting middle infielders
Aislyn Sharp and
Ashley Bradford.
In total, the Mavericks return 16 players, who accounted for more than 70 percent of their 475 total hits last year. CMU finished second in the country with their .378 team batting average last year.
Wedman broke CMU's single-season batting average record hitting .514 while Smith belted 19 home runs and 22 doubles while leading the RMAC in those categories, as well as slugging percentage (.961) and RBIs (80), as the team's dual-role designated player.
CMU also returns all three of their pitches from last season, including Adair (20-3, 2.31 ERA), Smith (13-1, 2.19 ERA) and
Shea Mauser (6-1, 4.64 ERA). Smith and Adair had the RMAC's top two ERAs, leading the staff that paced the RMAC with a 2.73 team ERA.
Transfers
The Mavericks also welcome two transfers to the program, both of who will be redshirt sophomores in 2022.
Outfielder
Iliana Mendoza joins the Maverick program this year after spending the 2019 and 2020 seasons at fellow NCAA Division II South Central Region institution Eastern New Mexico. She hit 3.73 and earned Third Team All-Lone Star Conference honors as a freshman in 2019 and was hitting .344 when the 2020 season was canceled. The Tucson, Arizona native sat out the 2020-21 academic year, but has plenty of connections to the Maverick program as she played club softball with returning all-American
Lauren Wedman.
The Mavericks have also brought in Price, Utah native
Kaytlyn Cripps, who hit 12 home runs while hitting .364 and driving in 37 runs last year at Salt Lake Community College. She started 32 games behind the plate for the Bears, who went 52-4 while winning the NJCAA Region 18 Championship. She had hit .296 with four home runs and 18 RBIs in 20 games during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign.
Freshman faces
The Mavericks also have three 2021 high school graduates on this year's roster in freshmen outfielders
Brooklyn Corns and
Rylee Crouch and utility player
Myah Arrieta. Corns hails from Riverside, California and is a graduate of Martin Luther King High School while Crouch is a native of Brighton, Colorado and a product of Horizon High School. Arrieta was a local standout at Central High School.
Socal Connections
This weekend's tournament will be a bit of a homecoming for two Maverick players and their head coach Mercedes Bohte. Both returning all-American and
Ellie Smith and
Brooklyn Corns hail from Riverside, California, located just to the Northeast of Irvine. Bohte, in her tenth season on the Maverick staff and second as the program's head coach, is a native of Simi Valley, California and played her collegiate softball at CSU Northridge. She earned her master's degree from Concordia Irvine in coaching and athletic administration from Concordia Irvine in 2015.
About the Opponents
San Francisco State (Friday - 12:15 p.m. Mountain/11:15 a.m. Pacific)
The Gators did not play in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and were 13-14 in the partial 2020 season.
Friday's game against the Mavs will be their first in 698 days since Mar. 8, 2020 and will feature a roster of just four returning players after the long hiatus.
However, they had made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 2019, when they went 39-20 under then second-season head coach Alicia Reed, now in her fifth overall year with the program.
They were picked fourth out of ten teams in this year's CCAA Preseason Coaches' Poll and return 2019 CCAA Freshman of the Year and NFCA Second Team All-America selection Brylynn Vallejos, who led the team with 28 stolen bases in 2020 while hitting .437 with 24 doubles and 81 runs scored throughout her 86-game career to date.
Lehua DeLeon and Sydney Jenkins were also a part of the Gator roster in both 2019 and 2020. Helle Nugent was a freshman in 2020.
Biola (Friday - 6:30 p.m. Mountain/5:30 p.m. Pacific)
The Eagles were one of the hottest teams in the country at the end of 2021, winning the NCAA Division II West Regional crown before dropping the best-of-3 NCAA Division II Championship series and finishing second in the country last season.
Going 26-16 overall, the Eagles won seven of eight post-season games before dropping the last two to West Texas A&M.
Kristin Halte takes over the helm of the program in 2022 after serving as the pitching coach for parts of the last nine seasons.
Her star pupil Paige Austin led the PacWest with an earned run average of 1.25 and 175 strikeouts last season and returns after pitching 31 2/3 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run at the NCAA Division II Championship tournament last year. She was named as the PacWest Co-Female Athlete of the Year.
This year's team has been picked third in the NFCA Division II Preseason Top 25 Coaches' Poll and received three first place votes. They return seven of nine retular starters, including the full outfield, the corner infielders and every member of the pitching staff.
Chico State (Saturday - 12:45 p.m. Mountain/11:45 a.m. Pacific)
The Wildcats garnered nine of the ten first place votes in the CCAA preseason coaches' poll, released last Tuesday collecting 99 of the possible 100 points.
They return nine players, including seven starters, from their 2020 team that was 19-2 and ranked second nationally before the pandemic abruptly ended the season. Like the rest of the CCAA, they did not play in 2021.
They qualified for five straight NCAA Division II Tournaments from 2015-19 and have a combined 184-59 record under head coach Angel Shamblin, who begins her 13
th year at the helm of the program this weekend.
Concordia Irvine (Saturday - 5:30 p.m. Mountain/4:30 p.m. Pacific)
The Eagles will begin the 2022 ranked tenth in the country, according to the NFCA Division II Coaches' Poll, after finishing 2021 ranked 12
th.
In 2021, the Eagles went 34-13 overall and 15-9 in PacWest play before being downed by Biola in the NCAA Division II West Regional title games.
CUI Head Coach and athletic director Crystal Rosenthal and associate head coach Rose Imbriano have led the Eagles to 560 victories together over the past dozen years and won back-to-back PacWest Conference titles in 2018 and 2019 before winning the league's SoCal Pod last spring.
They return multiple all-conference selections including catcher Sydney Sprinkle, outfielder Mega Massa and first baseman Missy Nemeth.
Sonoma State (Sunday - 9:45 a.m. Mountain/8:45 a.m. Pacific)
The Seawolves have been picked second in the CCAA preseason coaches' poll after making the NCAA Tournament nine times in the first ten seasons under Head Coach Jennifer Bridges.
In their last season in 2019-10, SSU went 36-20 and won the CCAA Championship Tournament.
They then won each of their final 12 games of the 2020 pandemic-abbreviated season, going 17-8m before sitting out the entire 2021 campaign.
Notable returners on the 2022 Seawolf roster include catcher Jordyn Martinez, second baseman Giana Hays and shortstop Cassidy Romano. Martinez hit .318 with 22 RBIs and a CCAA leading five home runs back in 2020 while Hays had a .339 bagging average along with four home runs. Romano was one of just two players to start all 25 games back in 2020, hitting .281 while posting solid defensive numbers.
Series Histories
The Mavericks have never played San Francisco State nor Chico State.
The Mavs are 1-0 all-time against both Biola and Sonoma State having defeating the Eagles and Seawolves in neutral-site encounters during the 2019 and 2016 seasons, respectively.
The Mavs are 1-2 all-time against Concordia, having defeated the Eagles in 2018 in the last meeting. The Eagles had won neutral-site encounters in 2003 and 2017.
Up Next
The Mavericks will take one weekend off before continuing non-conference play with another tournament weekend (Feb. 18-20). That weekend will see the Mavs play five more games at the Cactus Classic in Tucson, Arizona.
