COLORADO SPRINGS — A quality start by Liam Hohenstein and lights-out relief work by Jordan Pace was backed by clutch hitting as No. 11 Colorado Mesa defeated CU-Colorado Springs 11-4 on Friday.
In their return to RMAC play after winning three of four nonconference games against Chico State last week, the Mavericks fell behind 4-1 after four innings, but scored 10 unanswered runs on a chilly, breezy day at Mountain Lion Park.
Hohenstein (4-1) allowed only two hits over six innings, but one of those hits was a three-run home run in the fourth inning that just cleared the right-field fence.
CMU (27-12, 17-4 RMAC) got one run back in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Rob Sharrar and took the lead with three runs in the seventh.
Pinch-hitter Caleb Thomason delivered an RBI single to center to score Sharrar, who reached on a one-out single, to tie the game at 5-5. Paul Schoenfeld, who had walked, came home on a passed ball and TJ Rheem singled in Thomason for a 6-4 lead.
Pace replaced Hohenstein and struck out six over his three innings, giving up three hits, for his first save of the season. Despite walking six batters, Hohenstein limited the damage, not surrendering a hit after the home run. He retired the side in order in the fifth and gave up a walk in the sixth, but erased that on an inning-ending double play before turning the game over to Pace.
Two more runs came home in the top of the eighth and the Mavs broke it open in the ninth, sending eight men to the plate and scoring three runs on only one hit, but took advantage of four walks, a hit batter and two wild pitches.
Rheem, who hit .429 last week after moving into the starting lineup at shortstop, continued that pace, going 3 for 4 with a double, raising his batting average from .364 to .405.
Sharrar and Schoenfeld, the 1-2 hitters in CMU's lineup, drove in two runs apiece and scored one run each.
The win allowed the Mavericks to push their lead in the RMAC standings to 3½ games on Adams State, which opened a four-game series at CSU Pueblo on Friday night.
Colorado Mesa and UCCS (13-23, 10-11 RMAC) play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 1 p.m. at Mountain Lion Park, wrapping up the series at noon on Sunday. The Mavericks are now 24-8 against UCCS, 10-1 in the past 11 meetings.
