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The No. 2 Colorado Mesa (9-3, 0-0 RMAC) baseball team will open Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play up this weekend at Bergman Field. The Mavericks will play host to the Adams State (2-8, 0-0 RMAC) in a four-game series that begins today.
 
GAMES ADDED
The addition of games to the schedule usually doesn't get people excited, but when you added a national power to the schedule, that piques the interest of many. Colorado Mesa recently added two games with national power Central Missouri that will take place on March 22 and March 23 in Warrensburg, Mo. at Crane Stadium.
 
The two games will be the fifth and sixth games between the two perennial powers, but these will be the first two at anyone's home field. The previous four matchups were split 2-2 with three games taking place in Cary and the other at a tournament in Las Vegas at UNLV in 2006.
 
PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Junior righthander Josh Danyliw was named both the RMAC Pitcher of the Week and the NCBWA South Central Region Pitcher of the Week after his start against No. 7 ranked Northwest Nazarene.
 
Danyliw fired a complete-game shutout and allowed just three hits in the Mavericks 8-0 win over the Nighthawks. He didn't allow a hit until the fifth inning and finished with four strikeouts and just two walks in his seven innings.
 
HOME RUN KING
Junior Haydn McGeary became the program's home run king after blasting his sixth home run of the season last weekend against No. 7 Northwest Nazarene. The home run gave him 44 home runs in his career to become the all-time leader for the program, overtaking Chris McClure who set the previous mark in 1996-97.
 
BULLPEN LEFTY
Senior Austin Lorenz made two appearances in the series with No. 7 Northwest Nazarene and produced two outstanding outings. Lorenz combined for seven and two-thirds innings and allowed just two hits, a walk and seven strikeouts and earned the win in his second appearance to improve to 2-0.
 
For the season, Lorenz is 2-0 with a 1.20 ERA in four appearances. He has nine strikeouts while only allowing seven hits in 15 innings pitched.
 
NEWCOMER TO WATCH
Another entry into the non-newcomer but new contributor of the week is Robert Sharrar. The sophomore drew rave reviews coming out of the fall and found his way into the starting lineup in the series finale against Northwest Nazarene. Sharrar went 3-for-4 with a run scored and is now batting .333 on the season.
 
SCOUTING THE GRIZZLIES
Adams State comes into the weekend with a 2-8 mark but have four losses by two runs or fewer. The two wins have come against Southwest Oklahoma State and South Central region foe Eastern New Mexico.
 
At the plate, Cedrick Reynaud leads the team in hits with 11 including five hits in the two games he played against the Greyhounds. Senior Oscar Romero has also been a bright spot with 10 hits that includes two home runs.
 
The Grizzlies have three arms that make the Mavericks a little nervous and the one that keeps popping to the top is Alfredo Villa. The senior is 2-1 with a 2.00 ERA in his starts. He has struck out 22 batters against three walks and nine hits in 18 innings pitched.
 
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 949-370 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 hit the road for a four-game series with upstart Colorado School of Mines. The Orediggers are 11-1 in their non-conference games and are currently ranked in the NCBWA National Poll.