GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Riding an 11-game winning streak, the Colorado Mesa University softball team has returned home to play six home games in a span of five days.
The Mavericks, 12-4 overall and a perfect 6-0 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play, will host Fort Lewis College (3-14, 3-5 RMAC) in a 4-game weekend conference series on Saturday and Sunday and will then turn their attention towards a rare mid-week twilight non-conference doubleheader against Northern State University of Aberdeen, South Dakota on Wednesday (Mar. 16).
The stretch begins on Saturday with a doubleheader at noon. The Mavericks and Skyhawks will also play another doubleheader on Sunday at 11 a.m. The doubleheader with Northern State will begin at 5 p.m. and continue under the lights at the CMU Softball Stadium.
All six games will be streamed on the
RMAC Network and
live statistics for each can be found here.
Last Time Out
Ashley Bradford hit a home run in each game as the Mavericks banged out 22 hits, including four which sailed over the Joe Coors Jr. Field fence, in a RMAC doubleheader sweep over the Colorado School of Mines last Friday (Mar. 4).
The Mavericks also received a 2-hit shutout from pitcher
Ellie Smith in the second game as they claimed 6-3 and 11-0 wins to run their winning streak to 11 games. The second game was ended via the mercy-rule in five innings as the Mavs picked up their first run-rule victory of the campaign.
The Mavericks and Orediggers were slated to play another doubleheader on Saturday, Mar. 5, but those plans were ultimately thwarted by the cold temperatures. RMAC rules stipulate that a game can not begin if the local "feels like" temperature is below 25 degrees.
The series was originally scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, but was pushed up a day due to the weather forecasts, enabling at least the first two games to be played.
Ava Fugate and
Brandi Haller also hit home runs in the doubleheader that was played. Fugate was 3-for-4 with three extra-base hits and four runs scored in the doubleheader. She had a slugging percentage of 2.000 for the day. Haller drove in five runs while Bradford had four.
Lauren Wedman was also walked five time and had a .857 on-base percentage.
Shea Mauser earned the pitching win in Game 1, spreading just six hits allowed before Smith tossed a gem in the second, retiring each of the first ten Orediggers she faced.
Streaking
The Mavericks have now won 11 games after going perfect on each of the last three weekends. Their 11-game winning streak is the longest of any RMAC team this season and is equal to the sixth longest active winning streak in Division II through Wednesday's games.
Long winning streaks are nothing new to the Maverick program. The Mavs won their first 14 games of 2021 and had 10 and 11-game winning streaks later in the year as well.
They also had a 22-game winning streak during the 2019 season and won their first 37 games of the 2018 season.
Returning to the run-rule method
The Mavericks posted their first run-rule win of the season on Friday when they defeated the Colorado School of Mines, 11-0 in five innings, which was good for their 12
th overall victory.
The Mavs had recorded 21 run-rule victories amongst their 39 overall wins in 2021.
In 2022, the Mavs have posted three 1-run decisions. Eight of their 12 wins have been by three runs or less. In all of 2021, the Mavericks had just two 1-run victories.
Shutouts
The Mavericks recorded their third shutout of the season in last Friday's doubleheader night-cap over Mines.
Ellie Smith threw two of them in a span of five days, allowing just two hits to the Orediggers in five innings after giving up just three on the previous Monday (Feb. 28) against MSU Denver.
Paige Adair also threw a shutout on Feb. 18 against Azusa Pacific but has been out of the Maverick lineup due to injury since RMAC play began.
Stepping Up
Adair's injury has not hampered the Mavericks a bit as redshirt junior
Shea Mauser has started each of the Mavericks' last three doubleheaders, going 3-0 with three complete game victories. Mauser has given up just 14 hits and five runs in 21 innings over those three games, lowering her ERA to 2.29, fifth best in the entire RMAC.
Top staff
All three of the Mavericks' pitchers are ranked amongst the RMAC's top five, which as added up to a stingy team ERA of 1.56, which is by far the best in the conference and 11
th best in all of Division II, quite a feat considering that the RMAC is regarded as one of the best offensive conferences in the country year in and year out.
Adair leads the individual statistics with a 1.04 ERA while
Ellie Smith is ranked third at 1.26 after recording back-to-back shutouts. CSU Pueblo has the other two pitchers in the top five with Taylor Strupp in second at 1.24 while Jacelynn Trujillo is ranked fourth with a 2.21 mark.
The Mavs' team ERA is more than half as low the RMAC's next best team ERA. Colorado Christian ranks second as a unit at 3.19 while CSU Pueblo is third in the team ERA statistics at 3.20.
Leading the way up the middle
The Mavericks' two starting middle infielders in freshman second baseman
Myah Arrieta and redshirt junior shortstop
Ashley Bradford are getting the job done offensively for the Mavs. They are both 16-for-46 at the plate this year and are co-leading the team with their .348 batting averages. Bradford has also scored a team-high 12 runs and has the team's top slugging percentage of .630 as well as the top OPS of 1.104. She has hit three home runs and has driven in seven runs. Bradford has also reached safely in all 16 of the Mavs' games this year.
The Mavs are a perfect 9-0 when she has been in the lead-off spot.
Arrieta has five extra-base hits and has driven in nine.
Elsewhere, Maverick pitcher/designated player
Ellie Smith, a returning all-American, leads the Mavs with four doubles and seven extra-base hits. Like Bradford, Smith has three home runs and leads the Mavs with 12 RBIs.
Defending & Dominant Champions
The Mavericks enters the 2022 RMAC season as the 5-time defending regular season conference 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.
The Mavericks also won the RMAC Tournament title in 2017, 2018 and 2021 and advanced to their fifth straight NCAA Division II tournament last spring.
The Mavericks are also undefeated and tied for the RMAC lead, percentage-wise, with 8-0 Regis, so far this year.
Since beginning their RMAC title winning streak in 2016, the Mavericks have posted a 248-52 overall record, good for an .827 winning percentage in their 300 games since starting the title-winning streak.
The Mavs have been even more impressive in conference play, going a 188-18 in their 206 RMAC games since 2016, good for an .913 winning percentage. The Mavs have not lost more than four RMAC games in a single season during that 6-year stretch.
Home Sweet Home
The Mavericks have had just one home series to date this season, but did quite well in it, out-scoring the MSU Denver Roadrunners, 23-3 while sweeping a 4-game set on Feb. 27 and 28.
The home success is nothing new for the Mavericks, who have been tough to beat at the CMU Softball Stadium. The Mavericks went 23-2 at home last season and are now 137-20 at home since the start of the 2015 season, good for a .873 winning percentage over the seven seasons. They were a perfect 24-0 at home back in 2017 and have also recorded 20 or more home wins in each of their last four full seasons.
Here's a look at the Mavericks' home-field records over that span
2015- 18-2
2016- 17-5
2017- 24-0
2018- 22-5
2019-24-4
2020*- 6-2
2021-23-2
2022- 4-0 (current)
*Pandemic abbreviated season.
Smoothing sailing at the helm
Second-year Maverick Head Coach Mercedes Bohte, a member of the Maverick coaching staff since 2013, now has a 51-9 (.850) career winning percentage as the leader of the program. The Mavericks have won 95.2 percent (40-2) of their RMAC games under her tutelage.
In 2021, while serving as the program's interim coach, Bohte, led the Mavericks to a 39-5 overall record, good for an .886 winning percentage, which was the best in Division II softball. She was named as the RMAC Coach of the Year for her efforts and then had the interim tag removed over the summer.
Under her direction, the Mavericks went 34-2 in RMAC play to win the RMAC's regular season title last spring. They also claimed the RMAC Tournament crown and advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament.
In her time on the coaching staff, which goes back to 2013, the Mavericks have won six RMAC Championships and have qualified for five NCAA Tournaments. As the team's pitching coach, her staffs have led the RMAC in ERA during each of the last six seasons, including in 2021, when she guided RMAC Pitcher of the Year
Paige Adair and RMAC Player of the Year
Ellie Smith, who had the league's top two individual ERAs.
Smith, who also had a monster offensive season as the team's designated player, and outfielder
Lauren Wedman were also named as consensus first team all-Americans as leaders of the Maverick attack, which led the country in scoring (8.95 runs per game) and the RMAC in a multitude of statistical categories.
In her time as the Mavs' pitching coach, Bohte has guided 11 All-RMAC pitchers, eight of whom have also earned all-region honors, a group led by McKenzie Surface, the RMAC's all-time winningest pitcher and 2017 RMAC Co-Pitcher of the Year, 2019 RMAC Pitcher of the Year Kimbri Herring and Adair, who also picked up Second Team All-South Central Region accolades from both the NFCA and D2CCA.
The Mavericks also had seven overall and four First Team All-RMAC honorees in 2021 under Bohte.
Scouting the Skyhawks
The Skyhawks dropped their first 14 games of the season but have won three straight after roaring back to take a home series with Adams State last Friday and Saturday, 3-1. All four games of the series, which was FLC's home-opening series in Durango, were tight and were decided by just nine runs.
The wins were also the first for new head coach Dwight Sanders, who joined FLC after five winning seasons at Otero Junior College in La Junta.
Only two Skyhawks have started all 17 games for Sanders, who has a versatile lineup that has seen 14 different players already make six or more starts .
Cat Rodman has a .350 batting average as one of the more regular starters and leads the team with four doubles and seven RBIs. She and Alex Tenorio, who is hitting .333, are the only two Skyhawks to have hit a home run thus far. Tenorio also banged two doubles and has legged out a RMAC-high six triples. She leads the team with a .667 slugging percentage and 1.012 OPS. Both have scored eight runs.
Taylor Beaman is hitting .438 with seven hits in 16 official at bats while Jadyn Giley has had 12 hits in 33 at bats, good for a .364 batting average.
As a team, the Skyhawks are hitting .268 to rank seventh in the RMAC, just one spot behind the Mavericks, who are hitting .274 as a club.
However, the Skyhawks have struggled defensively conceding a .384 opposing batting average and 9.15 team ERA, the highest in the RMAC by a considerable margin of nearly earned two runs per game. They also rank 11
th out 12 RMAC teams with a .910 fielding percentage, having committed 40 errors.
Hailie Mann is 1-4 with a 8.06 ERA and has given up 88 hits in 48 2/3 innings of work. She does have 22 of the pitching staff's 45 strikeouts. Amiee Shanks has 16 of the others and has posted a 2-4 record and 8.20 ERA in 35 innings of work. She has conceded 61 hits.
Rodman (0-4, 12.60 ERA) and Tenorio (0-1, Infinite ERA) have also spent time in the circle, making five combined starts.
Sanders has not yet allowed a pitcher to complete a game as his four pitchers used so far have made 38 combined appearances in their 17 games.
Scouting the Wolves
Northern State University is currently 6-8 but will play doubleheaders at Chadron State and CSU Pueblo on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. After facing the Mavs on Wednesday, they then wrap up their Mountain swing with a Thursday doubleheader at MSU Denver before playing yet another RMAC foe in a doubleheader on Mar. 23 at Black Hills State.
The Wolves got off to a 4-0 start against NAIA opponents at the Presentation College Dome Classic in Aberdeen, South Dakota. They then dropped their first five games of the West Texas A&M Invitational before claiming their first Division II win against Texas-Permian Basin at the end of that tournament.
The Wolves' other win came on Mar. 1 in the first game of a doubleheader at Missouri Western State in St. Joseph after going 0-3 at the Teri Mathis-Zenner Memorial Tournament in Joplin, Missouri on the final two days of February.
The Wolves are coached by Ashley Schilling, who took over the program this year after a 3-year stint as the assistant coach at Missouri Western State.
They were picked tenth out of 16 teams in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll after going 23-20 overall and an even 13-13 in NSIC play last year, good enough to qualify for the NSIC Tournament bid. They were 1-2 in the post-season and then lost four-season head coach Jenny Fuller to Pittsburg State over the summer.
Six of the Wolves' regulars this season are currently hitting over .300, with Liv Richardson leading the way at .375. She is also tied for the team lead for doubles (4) and has a home run and nine RBIs.
Avarie Eagle has hit three home runs and has driven in 12. She is also hitting .326 and has a .969 OPS, thanks in part to her team-best .581 slugging percentage. Alexandria Arndt is slugging .563 and has a 1.026 OPS. She has four extra-base and ten hits overall.
As a team, the Wolves are hitting .306 and have hit ten home runs while scoring 62 runs in their first 14 games, good for an average of just below 4 ½ per game.
Abigail Rux leads Schilling's pitching staff with a 3.75 ERA but has thrown just 9 1/3 innings.
Junior Meghan Anderson is the workhorse and has posted a 4-4 record in eight starts. She was 11-12 with a 3.16 ERA last season and has competed seven games this season, while throwing 51 1/3 innings. She has allowed just 49 hits and 15 walks, good for a solid 1.25 WHIP. She has also struck out 78 hitters, getting more than half of her outs via the K.
Sophomore Reagan Elrod was the Wolves' early season No. 2. She has posted a 2-3 record in six appearances and five starts but has seen fewer opportunities as of late with the emergence of Rux, a freshman.
The pitching staff as a whole has surrendered 77 runs, 60 of which have been earned. They have a 4.70 ERA.
Series History
The Mavericks are a dominant 116-26 all-time against the Skyhawks, according to FLC records.
CMU's records go back to 1994 and have the Mavericks holding a 79-22 lead in the series in that game.
The Mavericks have won 21 straight games since 2019, but have not played since then. They have shutout the Skyhawks in seven of the last eight contests during the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Each of those eight games were played in Grand Junction and the shutouts were all mercy-rule victories. CMU completed a 2019 series sweep with a 15-5 win.
The two teams did not play in 2020 before the COVID related cancelation of a majority of the season and also had their originally scheduled 2021 series postponed by COVID issues within the Skyhawk program. The make-up series was then never made up.
Since 1996, the Mavs have won 41 of their last 50 home games against the Skyhawks, who did qualify for last year's RMAC Tournament in Grand Junction.
The Mavericks have never previously played Northern State.
Up Next
After the home-stand, the Mavericks will head back out on the road, playing a 4-game series at Adams State University in Alamosa next weekend (Mar. 19-20). The Grizzlies are currently in last place in the RMAC standings at 1-7 in conference play. They are 4-13 overall heading into a weekend series against Black Hills State that was moved to Alamosa due to snow in Spearfish, South Dakota.
