SERIES HISTORY
Colorado Mesa is 94-38 since the 2000 season which includes a 42-22 record on the road against CSU Pueblo. What once was a long standing rivalry in the sport has quieted down a bit after the Mavericks have owned the series in recent years. In the last five years, Colorado Mesa is 18-5 against the Pack
In the early 2000s, the two schools really battled it out with several high leverage matchups. CSU Pueblo had a 10-9 record against the Mavericks from 2000-2002 that included two matchups in an NCAA Regional that took place in Chico, Calif.
Colorado Mesa won the series last season 3-1 over CSU Pueblo in Grand Junction.
SCOUTING THE THUNDERWOLVES
For the second straight weekend, the Mavericks will be facing one of the elite hitters in the conference in ThunderWolf Reggie Williams. The senior is batting .465 with 13 doubles, a triple and a homerun. He recently snapped a 26-game hitting streak and has recorded at least one hit in 29 of 31 total games they have played this season.
Junior Tyler Curtis is leading the Pack staff with a 3-1 record and a 4.32 ERA. He has thrown 50 innings and allowed 63 hits, walked seven and struck out 33 on the year. One of his best outings came in a loss when he threw a complete game and allowed two runs on six hits, walked one and struck out five against San Francisco State.
GONZO GOIN OFF
Junior second baseman Jonathan Gonzalez started the off extremely slow and couldnt buy a base hit. In fact, in the month of February he hit .100 (2-for-20) with an extra base-hit and a run batted in. He caught fire in the month of March.
He raised his batting average from .100 to .328 (15-for-38) at the end of the month. He had seven multi-hit games and drove in four in game two against Colorado School of Mines. Since March began, he has also played error free defense at second base.
The Brawley, Calif. native is batting .317 with five doubles, a triple, a home run and 15 RBIs for the season.
BANO IN THE BACKEND
Senior closer Anthony Durbano has been fantastic in that role this year. He is 3-0 with a 1.47 ERA in 18 and a third innings. He has 19 strikeouts and has allowed his opponents to bat just .133 against him.
This past weekend, Durbano found himself in a little different role. He came into a pair of close situations but had to pitch extended innings. In his first outing, he pitched three and a third innings and allowed just one hit while preserving the lead and earning the win. It was the second longest outing for Durbano in his Colorado Mesa career.
He followed that up the next day pitching two and two-thirds innings and allowing just a walk and two strikeouts. He came into the game with two runners on before enducing an infield fly and getting a strikeout.
For the weekend, he pitched six shutout innings and allowed one hit walked one and struck out four while Regis batted just .056 off him.
STANDINGS WATCH
Colorado Mesa is in position to win the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference for the 11th straight season as they are at the halfway point of the conference schedule. They sit at 14-2 in the conference with a three game lead and the tiebreaker on MSU Denver in second place.
This week's opponent, CSU Pueblo (9-7), is in a tie for third place with Colorado School of Mines and in position to make the RMAC Tournament this year and dropped all four games last weekend to MSU Denver.
There is a battle brewing for the fifth and sixth positions in the conference with only six teams making the conference tournament. Regis and UCCS are in a tie for fifth place in the standings with Colorado Christian just two games behind in seventh.
ON THE HORIZON
Next weekend, Colorado Mesa will take on No. 4 Rollins at The Diamond for the first time in program history. The Tars just took two of three games from Tampa and will come into the weekend as one of the most highly ranked teams in non-conference action. Following Saturday's game, Colorado Mesa will honor head coach Chris Hanks for winning his 1000th game of his career.
PRO MAVS
The Mavericks had three players drafted last season with Andrew Morris, Haydn McGeary and Spencer Bramwell all getting selected in the MLB Amateur Draft. Since 2003, Colorado Mesa leads all Colorado state colleges with 18 MLB Draft picks in that time.
1. Colorado Mesa 18
2. Air Force 10
3. Lamar CC 9
4. Regis 8
5. Northern Colorado 7
6. CSU Pueblo 5
7. MSU Denver 5
8. Trinidad State 4
9. Northeastern JC 4
10. Mines 3
Andrew Morris was the highest selection during that time as he went in the fourth round to the Minnesota Twins this past June while Bligh Madris was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the ninth round in 2017 as the only top ten round selections. Madris was recently dealt to the Houston Astros after making his MLB debut last June.
Probably the most famous Maverick that is included in the list is Sergio Romo who was selected in the 28th round of the 2005 draft by the San Francisco Giants. Romo went on to win three World Series rings with the Giants.
NOT ONLY TEAM OF THE DECADE
The Mavericks were deemed the team of the decade after finishing the decade with the best record in all of NCAA Division II Baseball. But they have also been the best in DII over the last five years. Colorado Mesa has a .792 winning percentage (243-64) in the last five seasons which tops 2022 National Champion North Greenville (.784), South Central Region rival Angelo State (.773), Central Missouri (.763) and Tampa (.762).
Since 2017:
Colorado Mesa 243-64 (.792)
North Greenville 236-64-1 (.784)
Angelo State 235-69 (.773)
Central Missouri 229-71 (.763)
Tampa 208-65 (.762)
Minnesota State 202-65 (.757)
Illinois-Springfield 213-68-1 (.755)
Southern New Hampshire 210-68 (.755)
Augustana 224-77-1 (.742)
Azusa Pacific 204-77 (.726)
RMAC DOMINATION
Colorado Mesa has won ten straight Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles and are the conference coach's selection to win it for an 11th season. Since 2009, Colorado Mesa has won nearly 81 percent of their games against RMAC competition as they have a 389-92 record in that span.
