GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Four unearned runs proved to be too much to overcome for the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks who saw their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Softball Tournament title hopes dashed by visiting MSU Denver in a Friday night elimination game.
 
The Roadrunners took a 6-2 lead in the fourth inning with those unearned runs before Maverick junior Chloe Valdez answered with a 3-run home run in the bottom of the fifth.  However, the Mavericks managed to draw just two walks the rest of the way as the No. 3 seeded Roadrunners (43-17) held on for the 6-5 win to move into championship Saturday play, when they will face No. 2 seed Colorado Christian in another elimination game at 11 a.m.
 
The winner will then face No. 5 seed and Cinderella story Regis in the championship game at 1:30 p.m. 

The "if necessary" game would then follow at 4 p.m. if the Rangers, who defeated Colorado Christian in a Friday afternoon winner's bracket game, were to drop the first championship tilt.
 
Meanwhile, the top-seeded Mavericks dropped to 1-2 in the tournament and to 44-9 overall and will now have to wait until Monday morning's NCAA Division II Tournament selection show to see if they will be chosen as one of the eight teams from the region to participate in next week's South Central Regional Tournament. 
 
That show will air on NCAA.com at 8 a.m. MDT.
 
The Mavericks, who were the RMAC's regular season champions, came into the RMAC Tournament ranked sixth in the regional rankings, one spot ahead of MSU Denver, a team the Mavericks swept in the regular season in Denver.  Colorado Christian (48-7) was ranked third and looks set to receive a NCAA Tournament bid regardless of Saturday's results.
 
Regis, now 31-24, was not in the top 10 of the regional rankings and will likely need to win the RMAC Tournament, which would come with the prize of an automatic bid, to qualify for the NCAA affair.

The Mavs scored four of their five Friday night runs on home runs, their RMAC record-extending 115^th and 116^th of the season, after Ava Fugate delivered a key 3-run bomb in the Mavs' Friday morning 4-2 elimination game win over CSU Pueblo.
 
Myah Arrieta extended her RMAC record to 27 home runs as she led off the bottom of the first inning against MSU Denver, giving the Mavs an early 1-0 lead.  Her bomb also allowed her to score her 83^rd run of the season, a mark that ties the RMAC and CMU record, that Maggie Manwarren had set in 2018.
 
However, the Roadrunners turned the tables in the top of the second as Miki Berg and Aaliyah Arellano both hit solo home runs – just two plays apart to take a 2-1 lead.
 
The Mavs did answer back in the bottom of the second as Fugate drew a bases-loaded walk with two outs after Valdez and Cailynn Parsons singles and an Arrieta walk.
 
Both teams then left a runner on base in a relatively quiet third inning.
 
The fourth was anything but as a 1-out error proved costly as the Roadrunners went on to score four runs to go ahead 6-2.  Hannah DiFabio had the biggest blow, a 2-run, 2-out single before a Shelby Robb RBI single and ensuing wild pitch doubled the Roadrunners' lead to 6-2.

The Mavs then clawed back in the fifth as a Roadrunner error extended the inning and helped set up Valdez for her 12^th home run of the season, a deep shot to left as the Mavs closed the gap to 6-5 with three unearned runs of their own.
 
Roadrunner reliever Cheyenne Prieto then came into the circle for the sixth inning and retired the Maverick side before surrendering a lead-off walk to Fugate in the bottom of the seventh.  Prieto then got two outs before walking Iliana Mendoza, which moved Fugate into scoring position.
 
However, the Mavericks could not cash in as a Valdez hit into a fielder's choice, ending the Mavs' hopes.

The Roadrunners finished Friday's contest with nine hits as Robb, Berg, Arellano and Kami Grammerstorf all had two.
 
Starting pitcher Maddy Wilson went five innings to earn the win and improve to 12-3 after spreading six hits and five runs, only two of which were earned.  Prieto then pitched two hitless innings to pick up her third save of the campaign.
 
Hannah Sattler (13-3) took the loss for CMU after throwing 3 2/3 innings before Marisa Nehm threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings in relief in what was her first RMAC Tournament appearance of the weekend.

The Maverick offense finished with six hits as Valdez and catcher Miranda Pruitt both went 2-for-4.  Arrieta was also 1-for-3 with a walk while Parsons went 1-for-3 as well. 
 
Arrieta has now reached safely in 51 consecutive games, recording at least one hit in 28 of the last 30.
 
The Mavs will finish the season with a 21-2 home field record after going undefeated at home during the regular season, which included a 33-game winning streak.  However, they were held to just nine runs in three RMAC Tournament games, just over a third of their scoring average of 8.60 runs per game.