GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The No. 12 Colorado Mesa baseball team surrendered seven runs in the final two innings to fall 13-7 to the No. 19 Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks in the series finale at The Diamond at the Bus Bergman Sports Complex on Saturday (Feb. 24) afternoon.
 
The two teams were tied at 6-6 heading to the eighth inning. Northwest Nazarene scored three in the eighth and four in the ninth to take a 13-6 lead.
 
Colorado Mesa fought back and didn't go quietly in the ninth. Paul Schoenfeld led off the bottom half of the inning with a triple to center field before being lifted for a pinch runner in Brent Renteria. He would come around on a RBI groundout by Ethan Ezor.
 
Rob Sharrar stepped to the plate and doubled down the left field line followed by an Ethan Nunez single through the left side, but they would both be stranded when the final out was recorded.
 
Schoenfeld swung a hot bat and wound up with the cycle in his return to the lineup. Prior to his triple in the ninth, he had a single in the third, homered in the fifth and doubled in the sixth.
 
The cycle was the first for the Mavericks since March 27, 2021, when Haydn McGeary hit for the cycle in a win over Adams State.
 
Sharrar finished the game with three hits while Nunez and Joey Blank each had multi-hit games.
 
Declan Wiesner hit his first home run of the season to give the Mavericks their first run of the game in the bottom of the second inning.
 
David Craig took the loss in relief to fall to 0-2 on the season.
 
The Mavericks will embark on a short two game road trip to Southern California for a two-game series with perennial West Region power Azusa Pacific. That series will begin on Monday at a new time of 2:00pm.