GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After winning their 14
th straight Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference series but seeing what was a 23-game winning streak come to an end, the Colorado Mesa University softball team will take a share of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference lead into a weekend series at New Mexico Highlands University.
The Mavericks (25-5, 17-1 RMAC) will take on the Cowgirls (7-23, 5-15 RMAC) in a 4-game set. Doubleheaders will begin at Noon on Saturday and 11 a.m. on Sunday.
All four games will be streamed live on the RMAC Network and live statistics for each can be found at the link above.
Last Time Out
The Mavericks won three of four games in last weekend's series against Regis, claiming two run-rule victories in the second games of each day's doubleheader. The Mavs also came from 4-1 down in the bottom of the seven in the first game of the series last Saturday (Mar. 26) to pull out a 7-4 win in ten innings of that game. The Mavs then routed the Rangers, 11-0 in five innings in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader.
The Rangers then squeaked out a 6-5 win in the first game of Sunday's twin-bill, snapping the Mavericks' 23-game overall and 17-game home-field winning streaks.
The Mavericks then bounced back for a 9-1 victory in six innings of the final game of the series.
The Mavs finished the weekend with 32 runs and 41 hits and held the Rangers to 11 runs and 24 hits.
Brandi Haller hit three home runs in Saturday's doubleheader while
Ally Distler had two home runs during the series, including a walk-off 3-run shot in the bottom of the tenth inning in the series opener.
Ellie Smith went 6-for-10 at the plate while Myah Arrietta and
Sarah Jorissen both hit .500. Arrieta also had two doubles and drove in six runs as did Distler.
Paige Adair went 2-0 from within the circle, striking out 15 Rangers while holding them to just four hits in nine total innings of work. The Rangers hit just .138 against her and just .238 against the Maverick pitching staff throughout the weekend.
Standings Check
The Mavericks will enter this weekend's series tied for the RMAC lead with Colorado Christian, which is also 17-1 overall. The Cougars have a challenging weekend ahead playing at third-place Regis (15-5 RMAC), the only team to have knocked off the Mavericks this season.
CMU will play the Cougars on Apr. 23 and 24 in Lakewood in their penultimate series of the regular season, eight days after playing at current fourth place UCCS (14-6) on Apr. 15 and 16.
The top six RMAC teams will qualify for the RMAC Tournament in May, which will be hosted by the top overall seed.
Homer Fest
The Mavericks hit eight home runs in last weekend's series, holding the Rangers to just one.
Brandi Haller (3),
Ashley Bradford (2) and All Distler (2) all had multiple blasts while
Sarah Jorissen added another.
The Mavericks hit two home runs in each of the four games during last weekend's series and have now hit multiple home runs in each of their last six games. They have hit at least one in all but two of their 18 RMAC games this season.
The Mavericks have now raised their season total to 45 home runs and have had 12 different players hit at least one.
The Mavs now rank fifth in Division II with their home run total, which is just five shy of national leader Pittsburg State's total of 50. The Mavericks sit in a tie for third with their 1.50 per game average.
Distler leads the team with nine home runs, the fourth highest total in the RMAC. Bradford, Haller and Smith are all tied for seventh in the RMAC with seven home runs each.
Locals stepping up
Two of the Mavericks' local products have been stepping up in a big way this season, especially in recent weeks. Grand Junction natives Myah Arrietta and
Brandi Haller are the Mavericks' top two hitters in terms of batting average.
Arrietta, a true freshman out of Central High School, had two hits in each of last weekend's four games and has had at least one hit in each of the last nine games where she had an official at bat. In the process, she has raised her batting average to .404, which puts her ninth in the RMAC. Arietta also has six doubles and 11 extra-base hits and has scored a team-high 28 runs, fifth most in the RMAC.
Haller has also recorded 11 hits in the last eight games alone, four of which that have gone over the fence. The former Fruita Monument High School graduate who spent time at Division I Northern Colorado and Midland Junior College before returning home, is now hitting .365 and has 13 extra-base hits to her credit, including seven home runs. She now stands second in the RMAC with her slugging percentage of .904 and her OPS (On Base + Slugging Percentages) of 1.364.
Continuing the hit parade
The Mavericks tallied 41 hits in just 25 2/3 innings last weekend, hitting .360 throughout the weekend. The Mavericks were in double-figures for hits in three of the four games last weekend and have now recorded ten or more hits in 14 of their last 16.
The Mavs now have a .340 team batting average to rank 20
th in the nation. That average is 85 points higher than the .255 mark that the Mavs had going into RMAC play. The Mavs are hitting .392 in conference play, the best mark in the RMAC.
Nearly un-hit-able
As mentioned above,
Paige Adair surrendered just four hits in nine innings of work during the Regis series. Throughout the season, Adair has now given up just 19 hits in 43 total innings this season, ranking second in the country for hits allowed per seven innings (3.09).
Adair, the 2021 RMAC Pitcher of the Year, also has a 1.14 ERA and has held opponents to a .135 batting average. Both marks lead the RMAC by wide margins.
Top staff
Adair is far from the only weapon that the Mavericks have in their pitching arsenal. Fellow pitchers
Ellie Smith and
Shea Mauser are also amongst the top four pitcher in the RMAC in terms of ERA and opposing batting average.
Smith has a 1.45 ERA to rank second in the league in that stat and has given up just a .215 batting average to her foes, the fourth best mark in the RMAC.
Mauser is third in that category at .213 and ranks fourth in the RMAC with her 2.21 ERA. She is also fourth in the conference for strikeouts with 71.
The Mavericks have a team ERA of 1.65, the ninth best in 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.
Colorado Christian has the RMAC's next best ERA figure at 2.66, 55
th best in the country.
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 also hold a share of the RMAC lead with their 17-1 conference record this year.
Since beginning their RMAC title winning streak in 2016, the Mavericks have posted a 259-53 overall record, good for an .830 winning percentage in their 312 games since starting the title-winning streak.
The Mavs have been even more impressive in conference play, going a 199-19 in their 218 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
After winning three of their last four home games last week, the Mavericks improved their home-field record to 13-1 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 146-21 at home since the start of the 2015 season, good for a .874 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- 13-1 (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 64-10 (.865) career winning percentage as the leader of the program. The Mavericks have won 94.4 percent (51-3) 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 Cowgirls
NMHU enters the weekend series in a tie for tenth place in the RMAC standings but are just a game out of eighth and three games out of sixth place with their 5-15 conference record. The Cowgirls are 7-23 overall and are coming off a series split at Chadron State. They are 2-6 at home this season.
Much like their position in the standings, the Cowgirls rank 10
th in the RMAC for both batting and pitching, having posted a .257 team batting average and 7.17 team ERA.
The Cowgirls have four regulars hitting over .300 with Heaven Medina lead the bunch at .338. She also has six doubles and three of their 12 home runs. Arianna Ramirez also has a potent bat and is hitting .333. She leads the team in doubles (10) and RBIs (19) and is the team's second most used pitcher. Camrynn Ziegler is right behind Ramirez with a .322 batting average, nine doubles and 13 RBIs.
Nathalie Blattmann has a 5-9 record and 4.31 ERA from within the circle as the team's top pitcher. She has completed six of her 13 starts and has registered 58 strikeouts and a 1.56 WHIP (Walks + Hits/Innings Pitched) in 76 1/3 innings of work.
Ramirez has made 18 appearances and ten starts and has a 1-9 record and 7.23 ERA giving up 99 hits in 61 innings thus far.
The Cowgirls have conceded a .357 batting average and 32 home runs to their opponents.
Series History
The Mavs hold a large 81-23-1 in the series with NMHU since 1994 and have won 20 straight games over the Cowgirls since 2015, when the Cowgirls claimed one win in a 4-game series in Grand Junction on Mar. 14 of that year.
The Mavs have gone 28-1-1 in the last 30 games against the Cowgirls and are 34-13-1 on the road against them, including a 2013 tie, the only one in CMU Softball History as the result of inclement weather in the final game of that year's series.
The Mavericks have not been to Las Vegas, New Mexico since 2018, when they outscored the Cowgirls by a 56-1 margin in a 4-game series, posting 23-0 and 14-0 run-rule victories to bookend that series.
The Mavs recorded three run-rule wins in last year's series in Grand Junction and outscored the Cowgirls by a 44-11 margin on Apr. 2-3, 2021.
Up Next
After this weekend's series, the Mavericks will return home to face Black Hills State on Apr. 9-10 in what will be their second to last home series of the regular season. The Yellow Jackets are currently 8-14 overall and 6-14 in the RMAC heading into a 4-game series at CSU Pueblo this weekend.
