The No. 6 Colorado Mesa (15-5, 6-2 RMAC) baseball team will host the UCCS Mountain Lions (7-11, 3-1 RMAC) in a four-game series in Grand Junction beginning on Friday at 3pm. The two teams met up for the RMAC Tournament Championship a year ago with UCCS coming away with their first tournament championship. Colorado Mesa owns the all-time series 15-7.
 
PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Sophomore lefty Kannon Handy was named the RMAC Pitcher of the Week after throwing the program's ninth no-hitter. Handy pitched the Mavericks to a 4-0 win over Mines on Monday in the final game of the series. He was as close to a perfect game as you could get as he worked a 3-2 count to a batter with two outs in the seventh inning before surrendering a walk.
 
The Herriman, Utah native went on to earn NCBWA Region Player of the Week earlier in the week edging out the competition in the region. Just today (Thurs.), he was named the NCBWA National Player of the Week joining his teammate Haydn McGeary as National Player of the Week honorees.
 
Colorado Mesa No-Hitters
Kannon Handy – March 14, 2022 – Colorado School of Mines
Luke Cheever – April 8, 2006 - Colorado School of Mines
Shelby Hawkins – March 20, 1999 – North Dakota
Brian Day / Jamie Belt – March 20, 1994 – Abilene Christian
Gary Boone – April 15, 1989 – Fort Hays State
Vic Figueroa – March 5, 1984 – Grand Canyon
Mike Powell – April 11, 1981 – Denver
Rick Lucero – April 26, 1979 – Denver
 
THIEVES
Colorado Mesa has put an emphasis on stealing bases this year in an effort to find a way to put more pressure on their opponent's defense. The Mavericks are 26-of-33 in their stolen base attempts this season and are more than halfway to last season's total.
 
Matthew Turner leads the team with six stolen bases but three others are perfect (over one attempt) in their chances this season. Julian Boyd is a perfect 5-for-5 while Chase Hamilton and Harrison Rodgers are 4-for-4.
 
FARMVILLE
Senior Caleb Farmer has had a special season so far in his final season in the maroon and black. The San Jacinto, Calif. native is riding a team-best 14 game hitting streak into the series with UCCS along with being third in the country in total home runs with 12.
 
Farmer has driven in 31 this season which ranks 13^th nationally.
 
NEWCOMER TO WATCH
Redshirt junior Blake Rohm has emerged as one of the top arms for the Mavericks and will likely receive one of the starting rotation spots this weekend. He has pitched 17.1 innings this season and struck out 28, second on the team behind Kannon Handy. In his two starts this season, he has pitched 10 innings and struck out 17 in those two outings.
 
The Butler Community College transfer, and University of Virginia transfer prior to that, sat out the last two seasons due to injuries and transfer protocols.
 
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAIN LIONS
UCCS is off to a slower start then they would have hoped for this year. They enter the series with a 7-11 overall record and 3-1 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference after winning their lone conference series with New Mexico Highlands.
 
The Mountain Lions have been led on the mound by right Jonathan Cowles. The grad student gave the Mavericks fits last season and he has been solid so far this season. He has a 3-1 mark with a 3.29 ERA and 22 strikeouts in 27 and a third innings pitched. He pitched six innings and struck out nine against San Francisco State in his second start of the season.
 
At the plate, Kiichi Sato has the highest batting average for UCCS at .414. The redshirt junior has 10 doubles two triples and a .614 slugging percentage. He had a season-high four hits in two separate games this season with one coming against San Francisco State and the other against St. Cloud State.
 
Caleb Stubbings, brother of Maverick Jordan Stubbings, leads the Mountain Lions with five home runs.
 
THE WINNING WAY
As it was announced by the NCAA last year that Colorado Mesa was the winningest baseball team of the past decade. To shorten the window even more, they have the highest winning percentage since 2017 at .806. They have a higher winning percentage then some of the top programs in Division II baseball including Angelo State (.770), North Greenville (.768), Tampa (.759), and Central Missouri (.747).
 
Colorado Mesa is in search of their 41^st straight winning season.
 
THE SKIPPER
The Mavericks are headed up by living legend Chris Hanks who is the Mavericks all-time leader in wins with an overall record of 959-372 and has won nearly 72 percent of the games he has coached in. He is entering his 24^th season as the head coach and has guided the Mavericks to 16 RMAC Championships, 17 NCAA Tournament appearances and four trips to the NCAA Division II National Tournament.
 
During his tenure, he has been named the RMAC Coach of the Year 12 times, the ABCA Regional Coach of the Year four times and was twice named the NCBWA National Coach of the Year.
 
Coach Hanks is always quick to point to his coaching staff when discussing his personal successes as the staff has been intact for the past 12 seasons with others having been on staff just as long and longer than his entire coaching tenure.
 
PRESEASON POLLS
The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference preseason poll was released earlier this year and once again the Mavericks were picked to win the regular season title unanimously. They received all eight first-place votes possible and will be in search of their 25^th overall and 10^th straight regular season titles. UCCS was picked second followed by MSU Denver, and Regis to round out the top four.
 
Colorado Mesa has gained national attention by being picked No. 2 in the Collegiate Baseball Preseason National Poll despite the Mavericks not making it to Cary last season. Tampa was the preseason pick to make it back to the National Championship Tournament and win it.
 
In the NCBWA Preseason National Poll, the Mavericks were picked No. 4 behind Tampa, defending national champion Wingate and Central Missouri.
 
ON DECK
Colorado Mesa will head out on the road for a quick, but exciting two-game midweek series. The No. 6 Mavericks will head to Warrensburg, Mo. to take on No. 9 Central Missouri in a rematch of the 2019 NCAA National Semifinals. The two teams are 2-2 against each other in the all-time series.