GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University softball team made quick work of visiting New Mexico Highlands University, hitting seven home runs and using two big innings while holding the Cowgirls to just four combined hits in a 9-0 and 9-1 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference sweep on Thursday here at the CMU Softball Stadium.
 
Myah Arrieta and Ali Distler both hit home runs in each game while Jackie Oster, Miranda Pruitt and Makayla Westmoreland all hit bombs in the wins that allowed the Mavericks to extend their winning streak to 15 straight games while improving to 25-7 overall and 22-3 in RMAC play.
 
CMU has now won 30 straight games over the Cowgirls (11-18, 7-17 RMAC) since 2015.
 
The Mavs have now hit 33 home runs in their last six games and have 76 on the season, just on shy of Valdosta State's national statistical lead.
 
Arrieta, the reigning Louisville Slugger/NFCA NCAA Division II and RMAC Player of the Week, has now hit 10 home runs in the six-game stretch to take the RMAC lead with 17, one more than Pruitt, who pounded her 16^th round-tripper during an 8-run second inning in Game 2.  That came just one pitch after Distler's second home run of the day and the 11^th of her season.  She is now third in the RMAC statistics.
 
The Mavericks also used a 7-run fourth inning in the first game and recorded the mercy-rule wins in just 70 and 60 minutes, respectively.
 
The Maverick pitching was just as dominant as Preslee Christensen pitched a 2-hit shutout, her second in a week, in the first game while Hannah Sattler allowed just two hits in the second game, one of which was a Cowgirl home run, their lone highlight of the day.
 
The two teams were scoreless in the first two innings of the first game before an Arrieta 2-run blast well over the scoreboard in left center field put the Mavs up 2-0 in the bottom of the third.
 
Oster then hit a 3-run home run to highlight the Mavs' fourth inning, which also featured a 2-run single from Arrieta, who went 3-for-3 with four RBIs in the game and 4-for-6 with six RBIs and four runs scored throughout the doubleheader.
 
Distler also hit a 2-run homer in the Mavs' run-scoring barrage.
 
Meanwhile, Christensen (8-3) faced the minimum number of Cowgirls possible as Distler successfully picked off two Cowgirl runners while the Mavs turned a game-ending double play in the top of the fifth.
 
CMU finished that game with 11 hits from eight different Maverick batters.
 
The dominance continued in the nightcap as Arrieta led off the bottom of the first with her second home run of the day. 
 
Carlee Gonzalez would respond for the Cowgirls as she led off the top of the second inning with a home run to left, which leveled the score at 1.
 
However, the Mavs avenged the blast in a bit way as Westmoreland, Distler and Pruitt all homered in bottom of the second.  In between Arrieta, reached on an error and drove in a run while Ava Fugate delivered Bella Aragon and Emma Roach home after both had walked following a Illiana Mendoza double.
 
The Mavericks then cruised to the win as Sattler, now 6-2 on the season, retired ten of the final 12 Cowgirls she faced while the Mavs erased both Cowgirls that reached in that stretch on double plays after the Gonzalez home run.
 
CMU finished the second game with nine hits as Fugate, Pruitt and Westmoreland all tallied two.
 
The Mavericks will look to extend their winning streak more on Friday when they take on the Cowgirls in another doubleheader at 11 a.m. on Friday.