SERIES HISTORY
The battle between Colorado Mesa and Chico State used to be intense, back-and-forth games when both schools were in the NCAA West Region. Now that the Mavericks are in the South Central Region they havent met up as often.

The Wildcats have a slight 9-7 edge over the Mavericks and took two of the three games in last year's series at Nettleton Stadium. Colorado Mesa is 3-2 all-time at home and took three-of-four in the 2009 series.

Colorado Mesa's first win came in the 2007 NCAA West Region Tournament at Cal State LA when they won back-to-back games to eliminate the Chico from the tournament.

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
Chico State is having a bounce back year as they are sitting at 20-12 on the season and in the middle of one of their hardest stretches of the season. They are coming off a series win over previously ranked Cal State San Bernadino and have Cal State Monterey Bay after the CMU trip. 

Jeremy Keller leads the Wildcats at the plate with a .409 batting average with eight doubles and three home runs. He is currently riding a 6-game hitting streak. 

Ethan Lay has been dominate on the mound at 4-1 with a 1.23 ERA. He leads the country in WHIP at 0.87 and walks per nine innings at 0.49 with two total walks on the season. 

THE GREEK GOD
Designated hitter Christos Stefanos has quietly becoming one of the more feared hitters in the Colorado Mesa lineup and the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. 

The past three weeks he has been on a tear. On March 17, Stefanos was batting .250 after a 1-for-5 performance against Colorado School of Mines. Following the final game with CSU Pueblo, he is batting .375 after a 1-for-2 day at the plate that included a double, a walk and a hit by pitch.

The Stevenson Ranch, Calif. native has already eclipsed his home run total from a season ago having played in 13 fewer games at this point. Stefanos has recorded a hit in 10 of his last 11 games played in and has 11 RBIs in that same time span.

BULLPEN ACE TO STAFF ACE?
Evan Bunevich has been the Mavericks most consistent pitcher this season and has thrived as the bullpen ace and long reliever. The past week against CSU Pueblo he moved into the game one or Friday night starter and continued to produce.

In his first start, Bunevich went six innings and allowed five runs (four earned) on eight hits, walked three and struck out three but did not factor into the decision. 

For the season, the junior is 4-0 with one save with a 4.14 ERA in 37 innings pitched, second most on the staff. Opponents are hitting just .232 against him and team best 1.24 WHIP. 

PLAYING WITH POWER
Year in and year out the Colorado Mesa baseball team has been among the nation's leaders in the power numbers in the game and this season is no different. The Mavericks are currently ranked No. 3 in the country in slugging percentage at .590 and No. 4 in the country in both scoring at 10.3 runs and home runs at 63.

Rob Sharrar leads the Mavericks in both home runs and slugging percentage. He is ranked No. 13 nationally with his 13 home runs while he sits at an .814 slugging percentage which ranks him at No. 13 in the category as well. 

Ethan Nunez and Sharrar are the team leaders in runs scored with 35 a piece.

The 5-3 win over CSU Pueblo snapped a streak of 17 straight games with a home run for the team. In that streak, each game the Mavericks had at least two home runs in each contest. 

HEADING INTO THE BYE
Colorado Mesa is heading into the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference bye week. Like last season, they have filled that week with a strong non-conference opponent this year being Chico State. 

Last season, they took two-of-three games from NCAA Division II National Runner-up Rollins at The Diamond.

The Mavericks currently have a three game lead on second place Adams State and a four-game lead plus tiebreaker on third place Colorado School of Mines. At worst, they will have a one game lead on the Grizzlies and a two-game lead on the Orediggers after the weekend. Mines has yet to have their bye week.  

MAVERICKS IN MILB
The Colorado Mesa baseball team currently has eight players competing at some level of professional baseball. All eight finished in the minors but two of them saw action in Major League Baseball during the 2023 season. Bligh Madris saw action with the Houston Astros while Kyle Leahy made his MLB debut with the St. Louis Cardinals on July 7. Check out the full list of Colorado Mesa Baseball Alums and ways to follow along on their professional journey:

Bligh Madris (2015-18) // Detroit Tigers
Baseball Reference
MILB.com Profile

Kyle Leahy (2016-18) // St. Louis Cardinals
Baseball Reference
MILB.com Profile

Reagan Todd (2018)  // Colorado Rockies
Baseball Reference
MILB.com Profile

Haydn McGeary (2019-22) // Chicago Cubs
Baseball Reference
MILB.com Profile

Spencer Bramwell (2018-22) // Miami Marlins
Baseball Reference
MILB.com Profile

Caleb Farmer (2018-22) // Washington Nationals
Baseball Reference
MILB.com Profile

Kannon Handy (2020-23) // Colorado Rockies
Baseball Reference
MILB.com Profile

Andrew Morris (2019-21)  // Minnesota Twins
Baseball Reference
MILB.com Profile

RMAC DOMINATION
Colorado Mesa won its 11th straight Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title in 2023. Since 2009, Colorado Mesa has won nearly 82 percent of their games against RMAC competition as they have a 419-94 record in that span prior to the season.

D2 BASEBALL SUBSCRIBER CUP
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