GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Maverick righty Jacob Rhoades set career-highs in both strikeouts and pitches to lead the No. 5 Colorado Mesa baseball team to an 11-0 win over the UCCS Mountain Lions on Friday (Apr. 21) evening in the series opener at The Diamond at the Bus Bergman Sports Complex.
 
The Layton, Utah native earned the win after pitching seven shutout innings. After allowing a walk to the second batter of the game, Rhoades retired the next nine straight batters before allowing his first hit of the game in the top of the fourth on a single up the middle.
 
He finished the game allowing zero runs on three hits, walked four and struck out a career-high nine on another career-high of 119 pitches.
 
He gave way to his bullpen who were able to keep the shutout intact. Emilio Flores and Brendan Morris combined to pitch two innings and struck out two without allowing a hit.
 
The pitching staff got all the run support they needed in the first inning and in fact got it after the first batter of the game. Harrison Rodgers led the game off with his 10^th home run of the season after depositing a 2-2 pitch over the left field wall, oppo-taco style.
 
Rodgers finished the game 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two runs driven in.
 
The Mavericks weren't done in the first inning as they completed the inning cycle as Rodgers homered, Sharrar singled behind him, Declan Wiesner tripled and Stevenson Reynolds doubled all in the frame.The inning amounted to five runs on five hits and the Mountain Lions committed one costly error that led to four unearned runs in the inning.
 
Colorado Mesa ended up scoring in five of the eight innings they batted in.
 
Sharrar and Jonathn Gonzalez each finished with two hits while Conrad Villafuerte went 2-for-5 with a run scored and two driven in.
 
Colorado Mesa improves to 30-9 on the season and 19-2 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Confernece.
 
The Mavericks and Mountain Lions will continue their series on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 1:00pm.