GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University softball team will play Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival Colorado Christian University as they open up the double-elimination NCAA Division II South Central Regional on Thursday in Tyler, Texas at Irwin Field.
The Mavericks will make their 14
th all-time NCAA Tournament appearance as the No. 6 seed in the regional and will enter with a 44-9 overall record. They won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's regular season title by two games over the third-seeded Cougars, who have a 49-8 overall record.
First pitch is slated for 5 p.m. CDT (4 p.m. Mountain).
No. 2 seed and host UT Tyler will play No. 7 seeded St. Mary's (Texas) in the first game of the tournament at 2:30 p.m. CDT (1:30 p.m. Mountain).
The Game 1 and 2 winners will then match-up in Game 3 on Friday at Noon CDT (11 a.m. Mountain) before the opening round losers will play in Game 4 to follow at 2:30 p.m. CDT (1:30 p.m. Mountain) on Friday. Another elimination game will then be played between the two teams with 1-1 records that evening at 5 p.m. CDT (4 p.m. Mountain).
Saturday's championship game will then be played at 1 p.m. CDT (Noon Mountain) with the if necessary, game to follow at 3:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m. Mountain).
The complete bracket can all be found on UT Tyler's t
ournament central webpage.
The tournament winner will then play against the winner of the other South Central Regional hosted by West Texas A&M in next Tuesday and Wednesday's Super Regional, a best-of-three series with the right to move on to the May 19-25 NCAA Division II Championship in Longwood, Florida at stake. West Texas A&M is the No. 1 seed in the region and will host No. 4 Angelo State, No. 5 Oklahoma Christian and RMAC Tournament Champion Regis— the No. 8 seed in Canyon, Texas.
Fan Information
Tickets for the tournament can be purchased online or at the Irwin Field ticket booth. All tickets sales will be with credit/debit cards only. General admission prices are $10 for an all-day pass. Children 3 to 12 of age tickets are $5 with those 2 and under being admitted for free. All-Tournament passes are $25 for general admission and $12 for children 3-12
Single-day tickets, good for all games on the given day are $15 for adults or $10 for students, seniors and children. Complete championship passes are available for $33 (adults) or $23 (students/seniors/children).
All of the games will also be streamed for free on the
Lone Star Conference Digital Network and live statistics links can be found through the tournament page as well.
Last Time Out
The Mavericks hosted the RMAC Tournament last Thursday through Saturday and went just 1-2 while finishing fourth. The top-seeded Mavericks dropped their first game, 8-0 to eventual champion and No. 5 seed Regis on Thursday before bouncing back while coming from behind in a 4-2 elimination game win over CSU Pueblo on Friday morning.
They then could not duplicate the come from behind effort, falling 6-5 to MSU Denver on Friday evening.
Although, the results were not what the Mavs were hoping for, they did have some exciting and record-setting moments.
Miranda Pruitt hit .455 (5-11) and was named to the all-tournament team for the second straight year.
Ava Fugate matched CMU's school record for doubles (27) early in the CSU Pueblo game and then hit the go-ahead and game-winning home run in the bottom of the sixth of that game.
Myah Arrieta also hit a home run in the MSU Denver game, extending her RMAC record for home runs (27) while matching the RMAC and CMU record for runs scored (83) on the play. She also set a new RMAC and CMU record for total bases (181) on the play.
Chloe Valdez also hit a 3-run home run in the sixth inning of that game as the Mavs pulled within 6-5 after trailing 6-2.
Recaps of all three games can be found at the links below.
NCAA History
The Mavericks will be making their 14
th NCAA Tournament appearance and have compiled a 16-26 record in their previous 13 appearances. The Mavs have won the regional on two occasions (2000, 2009) and advanced to the NCAA Division II World Series in 2000.
They will be making their first appearance since going 1-2 in 2021 in Commerce, Texas. Head Coach
Mercedes Bohte will be coaching in her sixth regional as a member of the Maverick coaching staff after making four straight appearances from 2016-19 before guiding the Mavs to the 2021 as the program's interim head coach.
The Mavs have won at least one game in ten of their previous 13 NCAA Tournament runs.
The Mavs have never played Colorado Christian in the NCAA Tournament although the teams have had quite a fierce rivalry in recent seasons during the RMAC regular season and RMAC Tournaments.
CMU also never played UT Tyler in NCAA Tournament play, only facing off for the first time earlier this season. They have met St. Mary's once in the NCAA Tournament, back in 2001, dropping a 3-1 decision in Pueblo, Colorado.
National-Record Chase
The Mavericks hit three more home runs during the RMAC Tournament, increasing their season-long total to 116 while extending their new RMAC record, which broke MSU Denver's former mark of 112. The Mavericks have also surpassed the former national record of 114, set by Cal Poly Humboldt in 2013. However, Valdosta State hit five home runs during a 2-2 showing in the Gulf South Conference Tournament as the Blazers extended their 2024 total to 119, which is currently the NCAA record.
However, the Blazers were not selected for the NCAA Tournament, which means that the Mavs can tie the national record by hitting three home runs in the NCAA Tournament and could have the national record outright by hitting four or more.
Streak History
The Mavs saw their 33-game winning streak ended by Regis in their first game of the RMAC Tournament. The winning streak was the second longest in program history, shy only of the 37 game streak the Mavs put together to begin the 2018 season, a run that was also ended by Regis.
That 37-game winning streak is tied for sixth longest in Division II history. The 33-game streak is tied for 15
th longest.
In the rankings
Three of the four teams in this week's regional tournament, including the Mavs,
are ranked in the latest NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll, which was released on Tuesday morning. UT Tyler is still ranked third while Colorado Christian and the Mavs both dropped just one spot to 11
th and 25
th, respectively.
West Texas A&M re-took the top spot in the national poll and will host 20
th ranked Angelo State in the other South Central Regional pod.
Turning Two a Record
The Mavericks recorded four defensive double plays during the RMAC Tournament, enabling them to set a new program record for twin killings in 2024. The Mavs have now recorded 30 double plays this season, four more than the former program record of 26, set back in 1998. CMU also turned 25 double plays last season.
On an individual basis, first baseman
Ava Fugate has been part of 27 of those double plays, as she has already smashed the school record of 17, set by shortstop Makayla Kovac in 2016. Second baseman
Chloe Valdez has also been a part of 18 double plays this season while shortstop
Myah Arrieta has been a pair of 15.
Legendary Season
Maverick junior
Myah Arrieta has put together a season for the ages in 2024. The Grand Junction native and Central High School product leads the RMAC by wide margins in home runs (27), batting average (.483), runs scored (83), slugging percentage (1.052), on-base percentage (.564) and OPS (on base + slugging percentage) at 1.616 and was named as the RMAC Player of the Year last week.
She also currently leads the national statistics by four points over West Texas A&M's Diana Murtha (1.046) and is on pace to break the CMU record of 1.000, set by Makayla Kovac in 2014.
Arrieta also has racked up a national-leading 181 total bases this season to break the RMAC and CMU record of 180, which had been held by Brooke Hodgson since 2018. Her total is already the tied for eighth best in Division II history.
Arrieta also ranks second in home runs with her RMAC and school-record total of 27 and is just two away from tying Valdosta State's Abby Suite's total of 29. Suite and the Blazers have completed their season.
Her total of 27 home runs is the fourth highest in Division II history, just five shy of the national record of 32, set by Southern Arkansas' Brooke Goad in 2018. Goad played 71 games that season.
One more home run would be Arrieta into a tie for second place in the Division II all-time single-season rankings.
Arrieta has also scored a Division II-leading 83 runs, nine more than any other NCAA player this season, and has matched the RMAC and CMU school-record held by Maggie Manwarren since 2018. They are now tied for fourth in Division II history and Arrieta can move into a tie for second all-time with just one more run. The national record is 98, set by Nikki Flynn-Gregg of North Dakota State, who played in 78 games that season.
Arrrieta ranks second in the country for runs per game at 1.57, trailing only Virginia State's Hailey Darrington, who has played in just 30 games while scoring 48 runs this season.
Colorado Christian's Kenzie Middleton is second in the country for total runs this season with 74. She is fifth in the per game average category at 1.30, having played in 57 games, four more than the Mavs and Arrieta.
Arrieta also ranks fifth in the country in both batting average and on-base percentage.
Double Royalty
Ava Fugate matched the CMU record for doubles in a season against CSU Pueblo, hitting her 27
th of the campaign. That mark matches Brooke Hodgson's total from the 2018 season.
Fugate ranks second in the Division II statistics for doubles per game (0.51) and third in total doubles. CSU Pueblo's Caitlyn Cole hit a RMAC record-matching 30 in 57 games this season to lead both categories this season while Lenoir-Rhyne's Julia Mardigian has racked up 28 in 59 games thus far. The Bears have also qualified for the NCAA Tournament so Mardigian and Fugate could still catch Cole.
Fugate is tied for 14
th in Division II history with her 27 home doubles and could move into a tie for eighth with just one more double and a tie for fifth with two.
Augustana's Sarah Kennedy holds the national record of 32 from the 2017 season.
Scoring Leaders
Thursday's regional match-up with Colorado Christian will pit the nation's two top scoring teams against each other. The Mavs lead the Division II statistics in scoring average at 8.60 runs per game, having scored 456 in 53 games. That is the second highest raw total.
Meanwhile, the Cougars have scored a national-leading 473 runs and are second in scoring average at 8.30 runs per game, having played in 57 games, four more than the Mavs.
The RMAC record for runs scored is 508, which the Mavs set in 2018 and is a possible target for the Mavs and Cougars if they were to make deep runs in the NCAA Tournament.
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 this season, although the Mavericks dropped their first two home games of all of 2024 during the RMAC Tournament.
The Mavs went a perfect 20-0 at home during the regular season and finished the year with a quite impressive 21-2 home record this season.
They have now won 193 of their 227 home games over the last ten seasons, good for a winning percentage of .850 over the last decade.
They were a perfect 24-0 at home back in 2017 and have recorded 20 or more home wins in five straight full seasons from 2017-22 (excluding the COVID-abbreviated 2020 season), a streak that was snapped last year, when CMU went a still solid 15-9 at home.
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
2024- 21-2
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 160-46 (.777) career record and winning percentage as the leader of the program.
The Mavericks have also won 85.6 percent (136-23) of their 159 RMAC games under her tutelage and have now won three RMAC titles in her four years in charge. 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 first three years.
They are now 44-9 this season and won the RMAC Regular Season title for the third time under Bohte, who picked up her second RMAC Coach of the Year honors.
Including, this year's seven overall and first team picks, Maverick players have combined to win 29 All-RMAC honors in Bohte's four seasons, including 17 first team plaudits.
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 that year.
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 eight RMAC Championships and have qualified for six 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 16 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 and now 2024 Pitcher of the Year
Preslee Christensen.
Against the Field
The Mavericks are 1-4 against the other teams in this week's regional field and are 5-6 against the South Central Regional field as a whole, having played six of the seven other teams from the region selected to the NCAA Tournament.
The Mavs went 1-3 against Colorado Christian during the regular season and lost to UT Tyler on the opening weekend. They have not played St. Mary's this year.
In looking forward to potential super-regional opponents, the Mavs went 4-1 against Regis this season and dropped an opening weekend game to Angelo State. The Mavs have not played West Texas A&M this season.
