GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — One win for the title.
That's the task Saturday for the No. 25 Colorado Mesa softball team after sweeping CSU Pueblo 7-1 and 12-3 on a rainy Friday afternoon at the CMU Softball Stadium at Bus Bergman Sports Complex.
Coupled with Colorado Christian splitting a four-game series with MSU Denver on Thursday and Friday, the Mavericks are alone at the top of the RMAC standings entering the final day of the conference season and have clinched a share of the conference title.
With a one-game lead (two games up in the loss column) on the Cougars (39-5), the Mavericks (39-3) can lock up the No. 1 seed and hosting duties for the RMAC Tournament by winning one game of Saturday's Senior Day twinbill against the ThunderWolves, which begins at 11 a.m.
However, CCU would earn the No. 1 seed should the Mavericks lose both games because the Cougars won three of four against CMU early in conference play. CMU has not lost since the third game of that series on March 3, starting its current 31-game winning streak with a 5-4 victory in the series finale against CCU.
The Mavericks, 41-7 overall and 18-0 at home, showed they can win when they don't hit the ball out of the park, although Ava Fugate did have an impressive shot to end the second game on the run rule.
Instead, Colorado Mesa got a pair of clutch hits from Iliana Mendoza in the opening game and yet another steady pitching performance from Preslee Christensen, and used a unique squeeze bunt and heads-up base running to springboard them in the nightcap.
Mendoza drove a two-run double to left field in the first inning of the opener to help the Mavericks take a 3-1 lead, and she added a two-run single to right field in the fifth for her four-RBI game. After a slow start to the season, Mendoza is second on the team and fourth in the conference with a .446 batting average.
Despite losing both games Friday, the ThunderWolves (22-31, 20-22 RMAC) have locked up a spot in the conference tournament and are trying to move up from the No. 6 seed. CSU Pueblo's pitchers did what few teams have this season — keep the ball in the park, jamming the Mavs' power hitters. The top three home run hitters in the conference — Myah Arrieta, Ally Distler and Miranda Pruitt — were a combined 3 for 10 in the opening game, with one RBI, but Arrieta doubled in her final three at-bats in the second game and Pruitt was 3 for 6 on the day with two RBI.
Christensen (16-3), scattered six hits and struck out five and is tied for second in the conference for wins.
Fugate had the big game in the 12-3 win, including a line-drive 3-run home run into the center field party deck to end the game in the bottom of the fifth, just before lightning in the area would have suspended play.
Before that, however, Fugate was the central figure in a pair of unconventional plays. In the third inning, with Bella Aragon at third and Arrieta on second and the Mavericks trailing 2-1, CMU coach Mercedes Bohte called for a squeeze bunt.
Fugate got the bunt down as the speedy Aragon raced to the plate. CSU Pueblo's first baseman fielded the ball but realized she had no chance to throw out Fugate, who alertly realized no one was covering second. She never broke stride as she took the extra base and was credited with a bunt double, her 26th of the season, one away from the program record. Fugate is second in the nation in doubles behind CSU Pueblo's Caitlyn Cole, who hit her 30th of the season in the second game.
Arrieta, who took third on the bunt, scored on a wild pitch to put CMU up 3-2 and after Distler walked, back-to-back sacrifice flies by Pruitt and Chloe Valdez had the Mavs up 5-2.
After allowing a pair of unearned runs on one hit and three CMU errors in the second inning, Hannah Sattler shut the Pack down in the third and fourth innings, snaring a line shot right back at her to end the third inning.
Sattler (12-2) allowed three runs on six hits, walked one and struck out three.
Aragon made a terrific running catch in right field to end the fourth, and CMU responded with four runs in the bottom of the inning.
Consecutive singles by Cailynn Parsons and Aragon were followed by Arrieta's second double to left, getting one run home, and Fugate grounded to short.
The ball seemed to stick in shortstop Madelyn Huerta's hand, with her throw spiking into the dirt and bounding away from the infielders, allowing two runs to score. Distler followed with an RBI single for a 9-2 lead.
Fugate's fifth-inning home run gave her four RBI in the game, and all but one CMU batter had at least one base hit. Arrieta went 3 for 4 to raise her RMAC-leading batting average to .513.
The junior shortstop also leads the RMAC in on-base percentage (.589), slugging percentage (1.083) on base + slugging percentage (1.627), runs scored (78) and home runs (24). She's second in the nation in hitting percentage and home runs and CMU's 108 home runs lead all of Division II, four from tying the RMAC record of 112. The national record is 114.
Colorado Mesa, ranked No. 6 in the South Central Region, will not only look to wrap up the regular-season RMAC title, but will honor its four seniors between games of Saturday's doubleheader.
