GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Graduate transfer Miranda Pruitt delivered a pinch-hit walk-off 3-run home run as part of a 7-run seventh-inning rally to lift the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks to a 9-7 second game win over the nation's ninth-ranked Colorado Christian University Cougars in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action on Saturday afternoon at the CMU Softball Stadium.
 
The win snapped a 4-game slide for the Mavericks, who had dropped a tight 2-1 decision after being unable to push across the tying run in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader.
 
The split moved the Mavericks' overall record to 27-18 and their RMAC mark to 25-12 while the Cougars were defeated for just the second time in conference play and the fourth time overall.  They had won 12 straight and 46 of their last 47 games but dropped to 46-4 overall and to 36-2 in RMAC play after Pruitt's heroics.
 
The Mavericks trailed 7-2 entering the seventh inning before Rylee Crouch delivered an RBI single with two outs to cut the gap to 7-3.  Brandi Haller then battled with relief pitcher Alexis Hamilton as the Mavs were down to their final strike before the fifth-year Maverick senior belted a 3-run homer down the left field line to cut the gap to 7-6.
 
The Cougars then re-entered starting pitcher Abrie Castillo, who walked Iliana Mendoza after leading the count 1-2.  Bella Aragon then came on to run for Mendoza and advanced to second on a Sarah Jorissen single.
 
Maverick Head Coach Mercedes Bohte (Lovato) and her staff the decided to pinch-hit for freshman Olivia Litzen, giving Pruitt, the Tarleton State transfer, her first at bat of the day.
 
The veteran out of Joshua, Texas delivered hitting a 1-1 pitch over the wall in left center, her 11^th home run of the season to lift the Mavs to a signature win.
 
The Mavs finished that game with 13 hits as Aislyn Sharp, Ava Fugate, Haller and Jorissen all finished with two.  Sharp had hit a first-inning home run, giving the Mavs an early 1-0 lead before the Cougars chipped away building a 7-1 lead in the top of the sixth before a Jorissen RBI double scored Crouch in the bottom half of that inning.
 
Jorissen, who started the game at first base, came into pitch for the sixth inning and earned the victory after giving up just two unearned runs and a single hit in two innings.  She is now 2-3 on the season.
 
Castillo took the loss, just her second of the season, after conceding ten hits and five runs while Hamilton was charged with four runs in two-thirds of an inning.
 
The Mavericks had nearly pulled off a comeback in the first game of the doubleheader.
 
It was a pitcher's duel between CCU's Kali Crandall and the Mavs' Hannah Sattler, who combined to set each of the first 12 hitters down.
 
The Cougars then left two runners on in the third and another in the fourth before the Mavs had their first threat in the bottom of the fourth when Fugate was hit by a pitch before stealing second and moving to third on a throwing error by catcher Kenzie Middleton.
 
However, Fugate was stranded at third.
 
Haller then broke up Crandall's no-hitter in the fifth before she and Mendoza were left on base.
 
The Cougars then cashed in at the start of the sixth as Middleton hit a home run to begin the inning before the Cougars added an unearned run on a wild pitch later in the inning to build a 2-0 lead.
 
The Mavs then went quietly in the sixth before making some noise in the seventh as Ashley Bradford led off the inning with a home run to left before Crouch tripled. 
 
Haller was then hit in the elbow by a pitch but was not given first base after being ruled that her arm was out of the batter's box.  She eventually struck out before Crandall got Jorissen to ground out before striking out Mendoza to close out the Cougars' win.
 
Crandall recorded ten strikeouts while allowing just three hits and the lone Bradford home run to improve to 23-2 while Sattler (13-9) pitched a solid complete game, allowing just five hits to the potent Cougars.
 
The two teams will close out the weekend series with another doubleheader on Sunday, starting at 11 a.m.  The Mavericks will recognize five of their players during Senior Day festivities in between games.