GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Maverick softball team will look to continue their winning streak and dominant performances when they host visiting Chadron State College in a 4-game weekend series at the CMU Softball Stadium.
The Mavericks, 27-7 overall and 25-3 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play, will enter the series riding a 17-game winning streak and have won their last nine contests by mercy-rule decisions.
The Eagles are going the opposition direction and have dropped their last 13 games, while falling to 5-29 overall and 5-19 in RMAC play.
The two teams will tangle in a Saturday doubleheader at Noon and another at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
Tickets can be purchased for both doubleheaders at
www.cmumavericks.com/tv and all four games will be streamed on the RMAC Network (LINK).
Last Time Out
The Mavericks dominated New Mexico Highlands University in their last home series, played last Thursday and Friday (Mar. 28-29), winning all four games vie the mercy rule in five innings. The Mavs out-scored the Cowgirls 40-4 overall posting 9-0 and 9-1 wins on Thursday before recording 12-1 and 10-2 victories on Friday.
The Mavs hit 15 home runs as a team throughout the series and had a .483 team batting average to go along with a 1.161 team slugging percentage.
Myah Arrieta went 9-for-12 at the plate, recording five home runs while hitting at least one in each game. She led off the bottom of the first with a home run in three of the four games, providing instant offense.
Iliana Mendoza also hit two home runs and swung the bat at a .667 clip while
Chloe Valdez added two more home runs during a 5-for-10 (.500) series.
Ally Distler also added three home runs and seven RBIs.
The Mavs also committed just one error defensively and received some impressive pitching performances from all four of their hurlers.
Preslee Christensen went 2-0 with a 0.78 ERA and recorded the shutout in the first game. She also had ten strikeouts in nine combined innings in her two starts.
Hannah Sattler and
Christa Zagala also picked up wins and conceded just three hits and two runs combined in nine combined innings.
Marisa Nehm also had two innings of shutout relief.
Complete recaps of both doubleheaders can be found at the links below.
History Making Player of the Week
Myah Arrieta was named as the Louisville Slugger/NFCA NCAA Division II National Player of the Week for the second consecutive time on Tuesday after hitting five home runs while slugging at a 2.083 clip during the NMHU series. She was also tabbed as the RMAC Player of the Week for the second consecutive time.
The junior shortstop is now the only Maverick in program history to receive the national honor three times in her career and is the only-back-to-back winner. She also earned the Mar. 7, 2023 accolade.
More history looming
Arrieta's National Player of the Week honors have come during a recent tear that has seen her hit at least one home run in each of the Mavs' last eight games. She has hit 13 in that time, raising her season total to 20, which is now just one shy of the Mavs' single-season record of 21, set in 2011 by Kelly Adams, who was named as the RMAC's All-Time Top Player during the conference's centennial celebration in 2009.
Former teammate
Rylee Crouch hit 19 last season as one of four other Mavericks to reach that total. Current teammate
Ally Distler is now tied for seventh on the Mavs' all-time single-season dinger chart with 18, when she led the RMAC with that total in 2022.
Top Sluggers
The Mavericks have the three best and four of the five top home run hitters in the RMAC with Arrieta leading the group with 20, four more than
Miranda Pruitt, who has 16. Distler has hit 12 while
Chloe Valdez has joined the double-figure group with ten, the fifth best total in the conference.
The Mavs have now hit 84 home runs as a team, 41 of which have come in the last eight games alone. They lead the national statistics with that total, three more than Valdosta State's total of 81.
The Mavs also lead the country in team slugging percentage (.733). Arrieta is ranked second in the national individual statistical rankings at 1.170, which leads the RMAC, while
Miranda Pruitt is 11
th in the country and second in the RMAC at .921.
Iliana Mendoza (.842) and
Ally Distler (.812) also sit fifth and sixth in the conference and are 24
th and 31
st in the nation, respectively.
Record Chase
The CMU program record for home runs in a season is 100, a mark set in 2022. The Mavs are just 16 shy of that mark with 16 regular season games remaining on the schedule plus any post-season games the Mavericks would play. Their team slugging percentage of .733 is also 80 points ahead of the 2001 team's program record of .653.
The Mavs are also poised to break a defensive record having turned 20 double plays already this season, just six shy of the 1998 squad's program record of 26. The Mavs are second in the Division II statistics this year, just one shy of national leader Cal State San Marcos, which has turned 21 double plays this season.
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 early this season.
The Mavs have swept both of their home series this year and have now won 184 of their 216 home games over the last nearly ten seasons, good for a winning percentage of .852.
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.
CMU is 12-0 at home this season.
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)- 12-0
The Boss
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 143-44 (.765) career record and winning percentage as the leader of the program. The Mavericks have also won 83.9 percent (120-23) of their 143 RMAC games under her tutelage. She picked up her 100
th RMAC win in the first game of the series sweep against the Colorado School of Mines on Feb. 23.
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 Eagles
The Eagles have four batters who are all hitting between .300 and .350, who have also combined for 24 of the team's 33 home runs this season.
Ashland Baca is the team's top hitter in terms of average at .349 and has cranked out five home runs and five doubles.
Lauren Zimmerman has the top power numbers with eight home runs. She is also tied with Mackenzi Kroll for the team-lead with 23 RBIs and is hitting .305. Kroll, who has seven home runs, and Brady Laucomer, who has four, are both hitting .309.
Kenzi Garner and Tori Haug are the Eagles' top two pitchers. Garner is 2-8 with a 4.52 ERA and has completed three of her ten starts while throwing 65 total innings in 19 appearances. Haug is 3-11 with a 5.02 ERA and has completed 11 of her 15 starts. She has 60 strikeouts in her 90 2/3 innings of work.
Brooklyn Levin, is also a regular, had a 0-9 record and 7.76 ERA. She has thrown 67 2/3 innings.
Series History
The Mavericks had dominated the rivalry with the Eagles until last year, when the Eagles won three of four games during a Mar. 23-24 regular season series in Chadron, Nebraska. The Mavs did come back to win a 2-0 RMAC Tournament elimination game decision over the Eagles and still have a commanding 46-14 lead in the all-time series, largely thanks to a 22-game winning streak over the Eagles from 2017-22.
The Mavs are also an impressive 26-2 all-time against the Eagles at home. The Eagles last win in Grand Junction was in 2008.
Up Next
The Mavericks will head out on the road to play in Denver for the next two weekends. They will be at MSU Denver for what is shaping up to be a pivotal series in the RMAC Championship chase next Saturday and Sunday (Apr. 13-14) before playing at Regis on the following weekend (Apr. 20-21). The Mavs will then close out the regular season at home, hosting CSU Pueblo on Apr. 26 and 27 in a Friday/Saturday series.
