LAKEWOOD, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University softball team claimed a third straight elimination game win, knocking off MSU Denver, 6-2 before falling to host and top-seeded Colorado Christian University, 8-3 in the championship game of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament on Saturday hear at All Star Park.
 
The fourth-seeded Mavericks, who had remained alive with Friday wins over Chadron State and Regis, went 4-2 throughout the 3-day tournament and finish the season with a 32-23 overall record.  Their only two losses of the tournament came to the nation's eighth-ranked Cougars, who defended their RMAC Tournament Championship while running their overall record to 55-4 while winning all three of their tournament contests.
 
The Mavericks also had three players named to the RMAC All-Tournament team in catcher Miranda Pruitt, pitcher Hannah Sattler and first baseman Sarah Jorissen.
 
Colorado Mesa 6, MSU Denver 2
 
The Mavericks gave up the first run in the top of the first but scored two in the bottom of the fourth before extending their lead to 6-1 with a 4-run sixth inning.
 
The Mavericks had four hits and took advantage of two Roadrunner errors in that inning after a Pruitt home run and Jorissen RBI single, along with another error, allowed the Mavs to score their first two runs.
 
In the fourth, Pruitt hit a 2-out homer to tie the game at one before Brandi Haller reached on an error.  She then stole second before scoring on Jorissen's hit.
 
Meanwhile, Sattler retired ten consecutive Roadrunners in the third through sixth innings.
 
She then received some good insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth as Ashley Bradford walked before stealing second and scoring on a Pruitt single and obstruction call.
 
Haller then reached on another error before Jorissen hit a sacrifice fly to score Dakota DiPaola, who had come on to run for Pruitt.
 
On the ensuing plays, Iliana Mendoza and Ava Fugate both hit run-scoring ground rule doubles to extend the Mavs' lead to 6-1.
 
The Roadrunners then had three of their hits in the top of the seventh but scored just one run as Sattler closed out her complete game victory to improve to 17-11 on the season while likely ending the Roadrunners' season with a 34-22 record.
 
The Mavs also finished with seven hits as Pruitt went 2-for-3 while she Jorissen both finished with two RBIs.
 
Colorado Christian 8, Colorado Mesa 3
 
The Mavericks again took advantage of an error to score the first run in the top of the first.  Aislyn Sharp hit a one-out single and then moved to third on the error before scoring an unearned run on a Rylee Crouch sacrifice fly.
 
The Mavericks held that 1-0 lead until the bottom of the third when a grand slam from tournament MVP Logan Menzies punctuated a 5-run Cougar third, which resulted from two walks, an error and two fielder's choice plays.
 
The Mavs did pull one run back thanks to a Haller home run in the top of the fourth, her 15th and the team's 90^th of the season.
 
However, the Cougars scored twice runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth to extend their lead to 7-2.
 
The Mavs again responded to score one of their own in the top of the sixth when Bella Aragon hit an RBI single with the bases loaded to cut the gap to 7-3 before Savannah Tourville hit a solo shot in the bottom half of the inning to again extend the lead back to 8-3.
 
The Cougars then retired the Mavs in order in the seventh to claim the tournament title after winning the regular season crown as well.
 
The Mavs did-out hit the Cougars, 9-7 throughout the game as Jorissen went 3-for-3 while Sharp was 2-for-4.  However, they left eight runners on base and gave up five walks to the Cougars.