GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— For the last seven seasons, either Colorado Mesa University and Colorado Christian University have lifted the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Softball Regular Season Championship plaque.
An inside track to that same outcome could be earned this week when the Mavericks and Cougars do battle in their only regular season series of the season this weekend at All-Star Park in Lakewood.
The Cougars are 16-1 overall and will come into the series ranked ninth in the latest NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll while riding a 10-game winning streak. The Mavs have won eight straight games to move to 10-4 overall. Both teams are a perfect 8-0 in the early-season RMAC standings alongside MSU Denver and Regis, who will also play each other in a 4-game set just miles down the road at the Regency Sports Complex in Denver.
Both series begin on Saturday at Noon with the first of two consecutive doubleheaders, the second of which begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
All four games in both series can be seen on the RMAC Network and live statistics for the
Mavs' series can be found here.
MSU Denver will also have live statistics
available here for Maverick fans who would like to do a little scoreboard watching between innings.
Last Time Out
The Mavericks were home for the first time in 2024 last weekend, sweeping a 4-game series from the visiting Colorado School of Mines Orediggers. The Mavericks won both of last Saturday's games by 3-1 and 5-4 margins, hitting a game-winning walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to take the second. They then walked-off with game-sealing home runs in the fifth inning of 13-4 and 10-1 mercy-rule wins on Sunday to complete the series sweep, their second of the young season.
The Mavs hit .387 as a team throughout the series and out-scored the Orediggers, 31-10. They recorded 17 extra-base hits amongst their 31 total, cranking out nine doubles and eight home runs. The Orediggers had just four extra-base hits— one double and three home runs.
The Maverick pitching staff was also solid surrendering just 23 hits in 24 innings while recording a 2.92 team ERA throughout the weekend.
Complete recaps of both doubleheaders can be found at the links below.
Walk-offs
As mentioned in the weekend recaps, the Mavericks were able to end three of last four weekends with the ultimate celebration, a walk-off home run.
Ava Fugate lifted the Mavericks to the Game 2 win, hitting a solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh after the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers had come from 4-0 down to tie the game at four through 4 ½ innings.
The Mavericks then celebrated two more walk-off wins on Sunday as
Chloe Valdez hit her first home run, a 3-run shot, as a Maverick and just her second collegiate bomb in the fifth inning, giving the Mavericks a 13-4 mercy-rule win in Game 3 of the series.
Freshman
Cailynn Parsons then did one better later in the day, hitting a walk-off grand-slam to give the Mavs another 10-1 mercy-rule win in Game 4 of the series.
Double Streak
Ava Fugate, who hit .727 (8-11) with five runs scored and six RBIs, hit a double in all four games of the series with the Orediggers. She also added the aforementioned walk-off home run before adding a 3-0 run homer in the final game of the series to give CMU the early 3-0 lead.
Fugate, who had a monstrous 1.636 slugging percentage and 2.328 OPS (On Base + Slugging Percentage) during the weekend now leads the Mavericks with five doubles this season. The senior first baseman out of Chehalis, Washington, finished her junior campaign with seven doubles in 45 games after hitting five in 38 games as a sophomore.
Oh My(ah)!
After missing the final month and 23 games of last season due to injury, Maverick junior
Myah Arrieta has been on a tear in her return. She is hitting .415 (17-41) and leads the team with eight extra bases, including four doubles, two triples and two home runs. She also leads the Maverick regulars with a .500 on-base percentage and is fifth in the entire RMAC with her 1.256.
A Dozen for Distler
The Mavericks also missed the services of now redshirt junior
Ally Distler in 2023. Out for the entire campaign in 2023 after leading the RMAC with 18 home runs as a sophomore in 2022, Distler has also been a big part of the Mavericks' early 2024 success. She will enter the weekend on a 12-game hitting streak and is leading the Mavericks with a .425 batting average.
Splitting time as a catcher and as a utility player this season, Distler also co-leads the Mavericks home runs having hit one in each of the last four doubleheaders. She also has a team-leading 13 RBIs and a .755 slugging percentage, which puts her fifth in the RMAC, one spot ahead of Arrieta. Her batting average is good for eighth best in the RMAC.
Relief Specialist
Maverick sophomore Marissa Nehm has become the go-to reliever. The Grand Junction native has appeared in nine games, coming out of the bullpen in eight of them. She has thrown a team-leading 26 1/3 innings, a bit of oddity for a reliever in collegiate softball, and has an impressive 1.06 ERA to rank second in the RMAC. She also has a 4-0 record and a solid 1.25 WHIP (Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched) after giving up just 27 hits and six walks.
Homers from Everywhere
The Mavericks have hit a RMAC-leading 19 home runs as a team this season, an average of 1.36 per game, an average that puts the Mavs 11
th in the national statistics.
Although those numbers are impressive, it is even more telling that nine different Mavericks have at least one home run to their credit and six of those have multiple home runs.
Miranda Pruitt and
Ally Distler lead the group with four each.
Title-Pedigree Programs
As mentioned in the opening, the Mavericks and Cougars have been the championship programs of the RMAC. The Mavs had won six straight regular season titles from 2016-2022 (no champion in 2020) before the Cougars claimed last year's title.
CCU has also won the last two RMAC Tournament titles, celebrating CMU's home field in 2022 against MSU Denver before again defeating the Mavericks in last year's title game on Cougar turf.
The Mavericks had won both the championship and if-necessary game over the Cougars in the 2021 RMAC Tournament, which was played in Grand Junction. CMU also won the 2018 RMAC Tournament title at home against the Cougars.
The only other team to win a RMAC Tournament title in the last six was now Division I Dixie State, which got past CMU in the 2019 final, which was also in Grand Junction.
In the Polls
The Mavericks were picked third in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Preseason Poll, which was released last month (Jan. 24). The Mavs received two first place votes and 107 points in the polling of the league's head coaches, who ranked their opposition 1-11 without voting for their own squad.
Colorado Christian was picked first with 117 points and eight first place votes after winning the RMAC regular season and tournament titles last year. MSU Denver edged the Mavs by one point for the second pot in the poll with 108 points and received two first place votes.
Regis (92), the Colorado School of Mines (80) and UCCS (61) rounded out the top half of the poll,
which can be seen here.
Colorado Christian continues to be the RMAC's lone representative in the NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches poll,
which was released again on Tuesday. The Cougars are now ranked ninth after sitting 14
th a week ago and 21
st in the preseason poll.
The nationally-ranked opposition will be nothing new to the Mavericks, who have already faced two other opponents who are ranked in the top 10 of this week's poll. Rogers State is now ranked fourth while UT Tyler is sixth. The Mavs played both of those teams on Feb. 3, when they were ranked 19
th and eighth at the time (preseason poll).
Another Maverick opponent in Angelo State is also ranked 23
rd in the latest poll, which continues to include four top-25 teams from the South Central Region in new No. 2 West Texas A&M, UT Tyler, Colorado Christian and Angelo State.
Texas A&M-Kingsville is also third out of five teams in the receiving votes category.
Home Sweet Home
The CMU Softball Stadium has proven to be a fortress for the Mavericks and a house of horrors for opposing squads in recent years, which was again the case last weekend.
After the series sweep of Mines, the Mavs have won 176 of their 208 home games over the last nearly ten seasons, good for a winning percentage of .846.
They were a perfect 24-0 at home back in 2017 and have recorded 20 or more home wins in six of their last seven full seasons, a streak that was snapped last year, when CMU went 15-9 at home.
Here's a look at the Mavericks' home-field records over the last ten seasons.
2015- 18-2
2016- 17-5
2017- 24-0
2018- 22-5
2019-24-4
2020*- 6-2
2021-23-2
2022- 23-3
2023- 15-9
2004 (current)- 4-0
The Boss goes over 100
Head Coach Mercedes Bohte, a member of the Maverick coaching staff since 2013, is now in her fourth season in charge of the program and currently has a 126-41 (.754) career record and winning percentage as the leader of the program. The Mavericks have also won 83.7 percent (103-20) of their 119 RMAC games under her tutelage.
She picked up her 100
th RMAC win last Saturday in the first game of the series sweep against Mines.
In 2021, while serving as the program's interim coach, Bohte, led the Mavericks to a 39-5 overall record, good for an .886 winning percentage, which was the best in Division II softball. She was named as the RMAC Coach of the Year for her efforts and then had the interim tag removed over the summer of 2021. Under her direction in that year, the Mavericks went 34-2 in RMAC play to win the RMAC's regular season title. They also claimed the RMAC Tournament crown and advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament.
In 2022, the Mavericks were just as successful going 45-9 overall and 35-3 in RMAC play, clinching a sixth consecutive RMAC Regular Season title on the final day of the regular season.
They then went 32-23 overall and 26-15 in RMAC play last year while advancing to the RMAC Tournament final for the second time in Bohte's three years.
Maverick players have combined to win 22 All-RMAC honors in Bohte's three previous years, including 12 first team picks. Seven of those honors came in 2023.
She has also guided players to a combined five all-America honors from the NFCA and D2CCA. The Mavs have combined to garner 19 all-region honors from those two organizations in her three previous years.
Bohte's 2022 team had eight overall All-RMAC picks, including six first team selections. The Mavericks also laid claim to the RMAC Player of the Year in
Ashley Bradford, later named as a Second Team D2CCA All-American, and the RMAC Pitcher of the Year in repeat selection Paige Adair.
The Mavs also won the NCAA statistical titles for home runs (100) and slugging percentage (.646) and set a school-record for team ERA (1.63), the sixth best mark in all of Division II softball.
In Bohte's first season (2021), the Mavericks also had seven overall and four First Team All-RMAC honorees. The Mavs led the country in scoring (8.95 runs per game) that year and had a pair of consensus first team all-Americans in Ellie Smith and Lauren Wedman.
In her time on the coaching staff, which goes back to 2013, the Mavericks have won seven RMAC Championships and have qualified for five NCAA Tournaments. As the team's pitching coach, her staffs have led the RMAC in ERA during seven straight seasons from 2016-22, including in 2021 and 2022, when she guided 2-time RMAC Pitcher of the Year Paige Adair, who set a new single-season record for individual ERA (1.30) in 2023. Adair, now the head coach at Fort Lewis, also became the first Maverick to earn D2CCA South Central Region Pitcher of the Year plaudits.
In her time as the Mavs' pitching coach, Bohte has guided pitchers to 15 All-RMAC and 11 all-region honors, a group led by Adair, McKenzie Surface, the RMAC's all-time winningest pitcher and 2017 RMAC Co-Pitcher of the Year, 2019 RMAC Pitcher of the Year Kimbri Herring.
About the Cougars
The Cougars have also had a brilliant start to the 2024 campaign, rattling off ten consecutive wins during their 16-1 start.
They lead the RMAC in both offensive and pitching statistics and are hitting a league-best .358 as a team, while scoring 153 runs, an average of nine per game
They are even better inside the circle with a 1.39 team ERA that ranks them eighth nationally and first in the RMAC by a comfortable margin over the second-ranked Mavericks, who have a 3.11 team ERA.
Pitcher Kaila Eastburn, a graduate transfer from Grand Canyon, has posted a 0.76 ERA, allowing just five earned runs in seven starts, three of which she has completed, according to the RMAC statistical rankings. She leads the RMAC in ERA and is 6-0.
Emma Duncan, who transferred in from Western Texas College, has also been solid posting a 9-0 record along with a 1.42 ERA. She has five complete games and three shutouts in nine starts. They have also combined for 63 strikeouts.
Offensively, the Middleton sisters and Sami Edwards have continued their fine form in 2024. Kenzie Middleton is fourth in the RMAC for batting average at .458 and has eight extra-base hits and 22 RBIs to sit second behind her sister Kayla for the RMAC lead. Kayla Middleton has 24 RBIs.
Kenzie also leads the RMAC with 25 runs scored and is third in the league with a .548 on-base percentage while Kayla Middleton is fourth in the RMAC with her .800 slugging percentage, aided by her five home runs, second most in the conference thus far.
Edwards is fifth in the RMAC for batting average at .444 and has hit three triples, as has Kenzie Middleton.
Eastburn is also a significant offensive contributor and 2-way player, having recorded a .375 batting average and eight extra-base hits and 16 RBIs thus far.
Series History
The Mavericks lead the all-time series with the Cougars by 32-18 margin although the Cougars won five of six games between the teams last year. The Cougars won three of four games during the regular season series (Apr. 22-23) late in the year in Grand Junction before taking both games the teams played against each other during the RMAC Tournament in Lakewood, including the tournament championship game.
The teams split the 2022 regular season series in Lakewood and did not face each other in the RMAC Tournament despite being the top two seeds.
The Mavs had won 10 of the previous 11 match-ups.
Maverick Head Coach
Mercedes Bohte (Lovato) is 9-8 against the Cougars in her time in charge of the program.
CMU has a 12-6 record against the Cougars on the road, although they are just 2-4 against them under Bohte.
Up Next
The Mavericks will again be on the road next weekend traveling to Colorado Springs to face the UCCS Mountain Lions, who are currently in fifth place in the RMAC standings with a 6-2 league mark after winning both of their conference series thus far, by 3-1 margins over New Mexico Highlands and Black Hills State. Currently sporting a 9-8 overall mark, the Mountain Lions are in Chadron State for a key series today and tomorrow.
