GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The top-ranked Colorado Mesa baseball team got a huge lift from their pitching staff in a 4-2 win over the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers in what turned out to be an elimination game for Mines in the second day of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference baseball tournament at The Diamond.
 
Junior southpaw Kannon Handy took the ball in game two of the tournament and didn't disappoint. He allowed two runs on two hits, walked two and struck out seven in 98 pitches to move his record to 5-2 on the season.
 
His lone mistake of the game came in the top of the fourth inning as he gave up a solo home run to Mason Andrews. The only other Oredigger run came on an RBI single in the top of the fifth.
 
Anthony Durbano came on to pitch the eighth and ninth innings and surrendered just one hit to pick up his eighth save of the season.
 
The Mines pitchers were equally impressive, but the Mavericks got a big swing from Robert Sharrar and benefitted from a pair of Oredigger errors for their runs.
 
Robert Sharrar sent a 1-1 pitch over the fence in right field for his ninth home run of the season which gave the Mavericks a 1-0 lead.
 
Three batters later the Mavericks extended their lead on a RBI single to center field by Kolby Felix which gave Colorado Mesa a 2-0 lead.
 
They would later tack on a pair of unearned runs in the fourth inning.
 
Sharrar finished the game 3-for-4 with two runs scored, an RBI and the home run. The junior also had a huge outfield assist in the first inning when he gunned down an Oredigger trying to tag up on a sacrifice fly. He threw a dart to Declan Wiesner who tagged out the runner for the third out of the inning.
 
The Mavericks will play at 11am on Friday against the winner of the Regis and MSU Denver game on Thursday evening in the winner's bracket final.