The No. 7 Colorado Mesa (22-6, 9-3 RMAC) baseball team will head back out on the road for a key four-game series with the MSU Denver Roadrunners (21-13, 10-6 RMAC) this weekend at the Assembly Athletic Complex. The Mavericks come into the weekend as the top team in the RMAC while the Roadrunners are in a tie for third place in the standings.
 
RMAC PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Sophomore righty Cooper Vasquez was named the RMAC Pitcher of the Week after his sensational start against Adams State during the conference's pod weekend in Alamosa. The Oakland, Calif. native combined for his second shutout of the season as he went seven innings and allowed just two hits, walked one and struck out nine to improve to 3-0 on the season.
 
Vasquez is now the sixth Maverick to earn player or pitcher of the week in seven straight weeks the Mavericks have played in. He joins teammates Josh Danyliw and Kannon Handy as pitcher of the week recipients.
 
GOLDEN SPIKES UPDATE
Maverick junior Haydn McGeary has been named to the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Midseason Watch List. He becomes the first-ever Maverick and first-ever Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference baseball player named to the Midseason Watch List.
 
The USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award is handed out annually to the top amateur baseball player in the country. McGeary is the lone non-NCAA Division I college player on the Midseason list and joins four high school standouts as non-DI players.
 
The Thunderbird High School product is batting .485 with nine doubles, a triple and 14 home runs this season. He leads the country in both batting average and slugging percentage and is seventh in on-base percentage.
 
BROTHERS AND SISTERS
The Colorado Mesa baseball and softball teams have been brothers and sisters for a long time and now that they play in the vicinity of each other they have become even closer. Now they can stake claim to something together as both programs lead the country in slugging percentage.
 
The Maverick baseball team is slugging at a .637 pace which is tops in NCAA Division II while the Maverick softball team is slugging at a .621 clip, also tops in NCAA Division II.
 
As mentioned in the previous note, Haydn McGeary leads the baseball team and NCAA Division II in slugging percentage at 1.031 while Brandi Haller leads the Maverick softball team with an .875 slugging percentage.
 
Both programs are currently on top of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference standings and have big series on the horizon.
 
NO-NO TIMES TWO
The Maverick baseball and softball program can also claim something that no other NCAA Division II school can. They are the lone school to have a no-hitter thrown by one pitcher in both baseball and softball
 
Kannon Handy pitched the program's eighth no-hitter back on Monday March 14 against Colorado School of Mines and was within one pitch of the program's first-ever perfect game. Handy retired the first 20 batters he faced and ended up striking out six in the process.
 
This past Sunday, Maverick softball pitcher Paige Adair fired the program's first no-hitter since 2019. Adair allowed just one walk and struck out seven in the 5-0 win over New Mexico Highlands.
 
North Greenville and Spring Hill also accomplished the feat, but their no-hitters were a combined effort from two or more pitchers in baseball.
 
NEWCOMER TO WATCH
Pittsburg State transfer Dave Henderson got his first start of the season in Saturday's 15-12 win over Regis in the pod. Henderson pitched well enough to earn his second win of the season as he allowed three runs on five hits, walked two and struck out six.
 
On the season, the Lenexa, Kan. native is 2-1 with a 5.74 ERA in 15 and two-thirds innings pitched and 14 strikeouts.
 
SCOUTING THE ROADRUNNERS
MSU Denver was disappointed last season as they didn't make the field for the NCAA South Central Regional but that disappointment hasn't carried over into this season as they are in position to make another run at qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. The Roadrunners are 21-13 this season and 10-6 in the conference with series wins over Central Oklahoma, Emporia State and Sioux Falls in their non-conference schedule.
 
True freshman outfielder Cam Yuran has had a great campaign thus far for the Roadrunners. He is batting .419 with nine doubles, three triples, and seven home runs with 30 runs driven in. He had nine hits in the series with CSU Pueblo including a two home run game three of the series.
 
On the mound, 2021 co-Freshman Pitcher of the Year Reichle Arcilise has been dominant pitching on Friday's for MSU Denver. Arcilise is 5-3 with a 3.42 ERA in 47 and a third innings with 61 strikeouts. In his start against Emporia State, the sophomore allowed just one hit, walked two and struck out a season-high 12.
 
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 966-373 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 return home and play their first home games in 25 days as they host the Regis Rangers in a four-game series beginning on Thursday. The series will begin on Thursday and conclude on Saturday due to the Easter weekend.