GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Coming off a weekend where they did not allow a single run while scoring 35 of their own, the Colorado Mesa University Maverick softball team will return home to face Black Hills State University in a 4-game weekend series at the CMU Softball Stadium.
 
The Mavericks, 29-5 overall and 21-1 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play, have won 28 of their last 29 games, including all four of last weekend's series at New Mexico Highlands University. 
 
They will now host the 10-16 (8-16 RMAC) Yellow Jackets on Saturday and Sunday.  Doubleheaders 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 links above.  Tickets can also be purchased online at www.cmumavericks.com/tickets.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks swept last weekend's series in New Mexico, hitting .417 as a team as they cranked out ten doubles and nine home runs during the four shutout wins.  Paige Adair recorded a no-hitter in the series finale as the Mavericks won that game 5-0 on Sunday after posting 10-0, 8-0 and 12-0 mercy-rule victories earlier in the weekend.
 
Seven different Mavericks hit home runs as Ally Distler and Ellie Smith both had two during the series.  Smith went 5-for-10 at the plate with two doubles and her two home runs while driving in nine runs.  She also tossed a 3-hit shutout as a pitcher.
 
Adair recorded two shutouts allowing just two total hits while striking out 16 while Shea Mauser also recorded a 5-hit shutout that saw her register eight strikeouts on Saturday.
 
As a staff, the Mavericks allowed just ten combined hits in the four games, holding the Cowgirls to a .132 batting average.
 
Offensively, Nicole Christensen, Ava Fugate and Brandi Haller all finished with batting averages above .500 during the weekend as well.

Standings Check
 
The weekend sweep of the Cowgirls kept the Mavericks in a first place tie in the RMAC standings alongside Colorado Christian, which posted a key 4-game series sweep at nearby Regis in Denver.  The Cougars (33-5) also have a 21-1 RMAC record and along with the Mavericks are well in front of UCCS, which is now in third place in the RMAC standings at 16-8.  MSU Denver is fourth at 14-8 while Regis, the only RMAC team to have knocked off the Mavericks slipped back two spots into fifth at 15-9 after being swept by the Cougars, who have only lost to UCCS.
 
After this weekend's series with Black Hills State, tied for eighth, the Mavericks will face a key 2-weekend, 8-game road stretch where they will play at UCCS on Apr. 15-16 before facing Colorado Christian in for what is shaping to be a possible RMAC title showdown series on Apr. 23-24.
 
The top six RMAC teams will qualify for the RMAC Tournament in May, which will be hosted by the top overall seed.
 
Final New Mexico No-Hitter
 
Paige Adair's threw her first career no-hitter last Sunday in what will be her final career game played in her home state of New Mexico.  The Aztec native recorded seven strikeouts and gave up just one walk and one hit by pitch in Sunday's 5-0 victory.
 
Her no-hitter was the first by a CMU pitcher since Mackenzie Surface threw a 5-inning one on Apr. 14, 2019 against Regis.  Adair's no-hitter was the first 7-inning no-hitter for a Maverick pitcher since Surface tossed one on Feb. 25, 2018 against Chadron State.
 
Pitching Honor
 
Thanks in large part to her no-hitter, Adair was named as the RMAC Pitcher of the Week for the second time this season and the fifth in her career on Tuesday.  Adair had also tossed a 2-hit, 5-inning shutout that saw her strike out a season-high-matching nine on Saturday.
 
Throughout the weekend, Adair threw 12 innings of shutout softball, allowing just two walks and two hits while striking out 16 Cowgirl hitters.  The Cowgirls hit just .056 against Adair, the reigning RMAC Pitcher of the Year.

More No-No Notes

The Maverick baseball and softball programs can also claim something that no other NCAA Division II school can. CMU is the only school to have a no-hitter thrown by one pitcher in both baseball and softball this season.
Kannon Handy pitched the baseball 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.

North Greenville and Spring Hill also accomplished the feat, but their no-hitters were a combined effort from two or more pitchers in baseball.

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.

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 to rank 13^th nationally and first in the RMAC.
 
Homer Fest
 
The Mavericks added nine more home runs to their season-long team tote board in last weekend's series at New Mexico Highlands.  They now have 54 and have had 12 different players hit at least one.  That total is currently tied for third most in all of Division II and is just one shy of national co-leading Angelo State and Pittsburg State, who have both hit 55.
 
The Mavericks also rank second behind Valdosta State (1.69) in home runs per game, averaging 1.59 per contest.
 
The Mavs have homered in each of their last ten games and matched a season-high by hitting four home runs in the series opener against New Mexico Highlands last weekend.
 
They have hit at least one in all but two of their 22 RMAC games this season.
 
Individually, Ally Distler has hit 11 home runs to hold a share of the RMAC lead alongside three other RMAC sluggers.  Ellie Smith is sixth in the conference with nine home runs while Ashley Bradford is tied for seventh with eight.
 
Conference Stand-out
 
In the "conference only" statistics, Maverick outfielder Brandi Haller leads all RMAC players in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage and on-base percentage.  Haller has hit .511 and slugged at a 1.089 clip since the start of RMAC play.  She also has an on-base percentage of .577 and an OPS of 1.666.
 
In the overall statistics, Haller ranks ninth in the RMAC with her .406 batting average and has an .875 slugging percentage to ranks second.  She also has a on-base percentage of .480 to stand sixth and is third with her 1.355 OPS.
 
Continuing the hit parade
 
The Mavericks tallied 45 hits in just 23 offensive innings last weekend.  They hit .417 throughout the weekend and reached double figures for hits in three of the four games while recording nine in the other.  They have now had ten or more in 11 of their last 13 games and have raised their season-long batting average to .349, the 14^th best mark in the country and the second best in the RMAC.
 
That average is 94 points higher than the .255 mark that the Mavs had going into RMAC play.   The Mavs are hitting .396 in conference play, the best mark in the RMAC.
 
Nearly un-hit-able
 
After giving up just two hits in 12 innings last weekend, Paige Adair has lowered her hits allowed per seven innings number to 2.67, a mark that leads the country.  She has given up just 21 hits in 55 innings this season.
 
Adair, also lowered her ERA to 0.89 and has held opponents to a .119 batting average.   Both marks lead the RMAC by wide margins.  She is eighth in the country for ERA.
 
Record Pace
 
With their four shutouts last week, the Mavericks lowered their team ERA to 1.48, by far the best mark in the RMAC and now the fifth best in all of 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.  The Mavericks have recorded 11 shutouts this season, tied for tenth most in Division II this year.
 
This year's Mavs are on pace to shatter their program-record for team ERA, which currently stands at 2.08.  That mark was set in 2002.
 
The Mavs three of the RMAC's top four pitchers in both the ERA and opposing batting average categories.  Ellie Smith ranks second in the conference with her 1.36 ERA and is third in the RMAC for opposing batting average at .213.
 
Meanwhile, Shea Mauser ranks fourth in both of those statistics and in strikeouts.  She has an ERA of 2.04, an opposing batting average of .213 and has recorded 79 strikeouts.  Mauser has also caught a RMAC-leading 36 hitters looking at third strikes.
 
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 263-53 overall record, good for an .832 winning percentage in their 316 games since starting the title-winning streak.
 
The Mavs have been even more impressive in conference play, going a 203-19 in their 222 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 three of their last four home games in their last home series, 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 68-10 (.872) career winning percentage as the leader of the program.  The Mavericks have won 94.8 percent (55-3) 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 Yellow Jackets
 
The 'Jackets come into the weekend with 10-16 overall and 8-16 RMAC records.  They won both games of last Sunday's doubleheader at CSU Pueblo after dropping the first two games of the weekend series on Saturday.  The wins snapped a 5-game slide.
 
First-year head coach Aubrey Voboril's team has been potent offensively, scoring 5.34 runs per game while hitting .324 as a team to rank third in the RMAC for batting average.
 
Voboril has five starters who are hitting above .350, a group led by Lizzy Johnson at .395.  Fallyn Marshall is right behind at .387 although both are primarily singles hitters.  They only have six extra-base hits between team out of their 66 total.
 
Bell Luebken, Crystal Amaral, Shayla Tuschen and Bayleigh Hubbard provide the pop.  Luebken is hitting .352 overall and has nine doubles.  Amaral leads the team with seven home runs and 25 RBIs and as added in three doubles to also lead the team in slugging at .694.  Tuschen and Hubbard have four home runs each and have combined for 39 RBIs.
 
Amaral is also the 'Jackets top pitcher and comes into the weekend with a 5-8 record and 4.28 ERA.  She has recorded 64 strikeouts in 68 2/3 innings innings and has completed six of her 13 starts.  Tuschen is 5-6 with a 5.40 ERA and has thrown the same number of innings over 13 appearances.  They have served up a combined 34 home runs and 86 extra-base hits between them.
 
BHSU's team ERA of 5.36 ranks the Yellow Jackets eighth in the RMAC.  They rank tenth as a team in fielding with a percentage of .861 and have stolen just five bases as a team all season.
 
Series History
 
The Mavs are 26-3 all-time against Black Hills State and have won 21 straight games over the 'Jackets.  The Mavs are 17-3 against them at home and have seven out of the last eight games in the overall series in five innings.  The other game between the teams over the last two years went to 13 innings in the first game of a Apr. 10, 2021 tripleheader in Spearfish, S.D.
 
The Mavs swept last year's series in South Dakota posting 44 total runs while conceding nine.  They had a 20-0 win in the middle game of the tripleheader before winning the final two games of the series, 13-3 and 11-3.  They had won the first game by an 8-3 score putting up five runs in the top of the 13^th of the softball marathon.
 
The teams did not play in 2020 due to COVID.  The Mavericks had swept the 2019 home series, scoring 54 runs while conceding just six.
 
BHSU's last win over the Mavericks came by a 4-3 margin on Mar. 3, 2013 in Grand Junction.
 
Up Next
 
After this weekend's series, the Mavericks will head on the road for their next eight playing at UCCS on Good Friday (Apr. 15) and Saturday, Apr. 16 before squaring off with RMAC co-leaders Colorado Christian on Apr. 23 and 24.  The Mavs then close out the regular season at home against Chadron State on Apr. 29 and 30.