GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After having extended their overall winning streak to 17 while remaining perfect at home with six victories over a span of five days, the Colorado Mesa University softball team will take their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference lead on the road this weekend for a 4-game series at Adams State University in Alamosa.
 
The series will include Saturday and Sunday doubleheaders, which will begin at noon and 11 a.m. respectively.
 
The Mavericks will enter the weekend with an 18-4 overall record and lead the RMAC standings with their 10-0 conference mark.  ASU is 8-15 overall after claiming a non-conference doubleheader sweep at home on Wednesday against New Mexico Highlands.  The Grizzlies have a 3-9 RMAC mark and are tied for ninth in the conference standings.
 
All four games will be streamed by ASU on the RMAC Network and live statistics for each can be found at the link above.
 
Last Times Out
 
The Mavericks out-scored Fort Lewis College, 45-5 in a 4-game series sweep last weekend.  The Mavericks tallied 47 hits, including nine home runs, in that series winning each of the last three games via the mercy rule after winning the first game, 8-1.
 
The Mavs won the third game of that series, 17-0.
 
Ellie Smith, who was named as the RMAC Player of the Week, and Ally Distler both hit two home runs over the weekend.  Seven other Mavs also hit homers against the Skyhawks.
 
Smith and Ava Fugate both had grand slams.
 
Meanwhile, Smith and Shea Mauser allowed just 16 hits in four complete game pitching victories.  Mauser tossed a 2-hit shutout in Sunday's 17-0 victory and gave up just five hits a single unearned run in the first game of the series.
 
CMU then continued their winning ways on Wednesday, claiming 5-4 and 6-1 wins over Northern State University in a rare mid-week, under-the-lights doubleheader. 

Five different Mavericks hit home runs in those victories.  The Mavs had three of them in the bottom of the first inning of Game 1 alone as the Mavs took a 4-1 lead before the Wolves clawed back to tie the game at 4.  However, Ashley Bradford then hit a walk-off triple to plate Iliana Mendoza with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh.
 
The second game victory was a little more straight forward as Fugate and Christensen hit home runs in the fifth and sixth innings to help put the game away.
 
Streaking
 
The Mavericks have now won 17 games after going perfect on each of the last four weekends and in Wednesday's non-conference doubleheader against Northern State.    Their winning streak is the longest of any RMAC team this season and is the second longest active streak in Division II.  Concordia Irvine, which is a perfect 24-0 this year, is the only team with a longer streak.  One of the Eagles' wins came over the Mavs by a 5-3 score back on Feb. 5.
 
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.
 
Hit parade
 
The Mavericks have recorded ten or more hits in seven of their last eight games after reaching that total just three times in the first 14.
 
The Mavs have recorded 130 hits this season, more than three times as many as their opponents (41) and have a team batting average of .309, 115 points higher than their opponents.
 
Make it a dozen
 
Twelve different Maverick players have hit at least one home run this season.  Four of those hit their first of the campaign during the recent homestand.  The new 2022 home run club member are Kaley Barker, Nicole Christensen, Rylee Crouch and Lauren Wedman.  Crouch and Barker both hit theirs during the fourth inning of CMU's 17-0 victory over Fort Lewis and came on pinch-hitting opportunities.  Crouch's shot was her first collegiate home run.
 
Bombs Away
 
The Mavericks have now hit 29 home runs this season, 18 of which have come in the last eight games alone.  The Mavs lead the RMAC with their home run total and are ranked 13^th nationally.  On a per game average basis, the Mavs are now ranked seventh in the country for home runs per game.
 
Seventeen
 
That was the number of runs the Mavericks put up in Sunday's 5-inning demolition of Fort Lewis.  That run total is the highest single-game run total of any RMAC team this season but is still one shy of a spot in the top ten of the Mavericks' single-game records.
 
Maverick hitters did drive in each of the 17 runs as the Mavericks' put up 17 RBIs, equal to tenth most in CMU's single-game history,
 
Welcome Back Paige
 
Paige Adair saw her first game action in nearly a month on Wednesday when she threw two relief innings in the first game of the doubleheader against Northern State.   Adair had been out of the lineup due to injury for all ten of CMU's RMAC games thus far.
 
She recorded two strikeouts and gave up two hits, including one home run, in her return, which saw her make 32 pitches.
 
Adair, who was the RMAC Pitcher of the Year in 2021, leads the RMAC with her 1.21 ERA and has held opposing hitters to a .146 batting average, a figure that is nearly more than 60 points lower than any other qualifying RMAC pitcher.
 
Top staff
 
Despite being without Adair's talents for their first three RMAC weekends, the Mavericks' other two pitchers continued to do a fine job.  In fact, the Mavericks' three pitchers— Adair, Ellie Smith and Shea Mauser— have the lowest three ERAs in the conference.
 
Smith is second with her 1.33 ERA while Mauser ranks third at 1.73.
 
Smith has given up just five earned runs as the Game 2 starter in each of the last six doubleheaders.    Mauser, who has started Game 1 of each doubleheader, has conceded just six earned runs in that span.
 
The Mavericks have a team ERA of 1.45, by far the best in the conference and rank sixth in the country for team ERA, quite a feat considering that the RMAC is regarded as one of the best offensive conferences in the country year in and year out.
 
Colorado Christian has the RMAC's next best ERA figure at 2.78.
 
New Leaders
 
The Mavericks' top two hitters in terms of batting average are both newcomers to the program this year.

Freshman Myah Arrieta now leads the Mavs with her .375 batting average while Iliana Mendoza, a transfer from Eastern New Mexico, who took the 2021 season off, is now hitting .349.
 
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 hold the RMAC lead with their perfect 10-0 conference record this year.
 
Since beginning their RMAC title winning streak in 2016, the Mavericks have posted a 252-52 overall record, good for an .829 winning percentage in their 304 games since starting the title-winning streak.
 
The Mavs have been even more impressive in conference play, going a 192-18 in their 210 RMAC games since 2016, good for an .914 winning percentage.  The Mavs have not lost more than four RMAC games in a single season during that 6-year stretch.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
After winning all six games during their recent home-stand, the Mavericks now have a perfect 10-0 record at home this season.
 
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 143-20 at home since the start of the 2015 season, good for a .877 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- 10-0 (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 57-9 (.864) career winning percentage as the leader of the program.  The Mavericks have won 95.7 percent (44-2) 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 Grizzlies
 
The Grizzlies will enter this weekend's series with an 8-15 overall record.  They are 3-9 in conference play after splitting a 4-game series against Black Hills State last weekend.  The Grizzlies were the designated away team in that series, originally scheduled for Spearfish, South Dakota, but played it at home due to snow in South Dakota.  They won the first two games of it last Saturday before dropping two on Sunday.  They then bounced back to win two non-conference home games against New Mexico Highlands on Wednesday.
 
Fifteenth-year head coach Dervin Taylor picked up his 300^th career win during the series with the Yellow Jackets.
 
His squad is hitting .285 as a unit and have scored 5.61 runs per game.  However, they have surrendered an opposing batting average of .371 and have given up 186 runs, nearly a third of which (61) have been unearned.
 
Taylor has used seven different pitchers, who have a combined 6.03 ERA as a staff.
 
Jade Garbiso has been on a tear offensively and is also one of the team's top two pitchers.  Offensively, she is hitting .471 and paces the team with four home runs and 17 extra-base hits.  She ranks third in the RMAC with her batting average and is second for doubles with nine.  Garbiso also leads the RMAC with a .549 on base percentage and is second for runs per game having scored 28, more than twice as many as any other Grizzly.
 
Sydney Muniz and Belinda Vargas also strong hitters.  Muniz is hitting .343 and has driven in 19 runs while Vargas is hitting .328 while driving in a team-high 22.  She also has three home runs while both Muniz and Vargas have seven doubles.
 
Taylor has used four of his seven pitchers fairly extensively with each of those four throwing between 26 and 38 innings thus far.  Tayler Duncan leads the group with 38 innings pitched and has the team's best ERA at 3.87.   She is 1-4 in 11 appearances and seven starts.  She has been charged with 41 runs, but only 21 of which have been earned.
 
Jasmine Garbiso has a 3-3 record and 5.38 ERA and has been primarily used as a reliever.  She has made 14 appearances but has started just three times.
 
Jade Garbiso is 1-2 with a 5.63 ERA over 32 1/3 innings spanning six appearances, including five starts.
 
Series History
 
The Mavericks have been dominant against Adams State having won each of the last 19 games they have played against the Grizzlies since splitting a doubleheader on Mar. 22, 2015.  Each of the last nine victories have come via the mercy-rule.
 
Since 1994, the Mavericks are 71-33 against the Grizzlies.  They are 30-20 against them in Alamosa during that time and have won seven straight at the ASU Softball Field since the Grizzlies won the first game of a Mar. 23, 2014 doubleheader.
 
Up Next
 
After the Mavericks' trip to Alamosa, they will return home for a key RMAC series against Regis University.  The Rangers are currently 16-11 overall and are in third place in the RMAC standings with a 10-2 conference record.  The Rangers have split their last three doubleheaders and are home for a 4-game set against Chadron State this weekend.