GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Talk about streaks.
Colorado Mesa had a few of them Thursday in the second round of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference baseball tournament at The Diamond.
In a 17-10 win over Adams State, the Mavericks, who own an impressive streak of 12 consecutive RMAC regular-season championships, put together three offensive streaks and one impressive pitching streak.
First, the Mavericks hit back-to-back-to-back home runs in the second inning, all with two out.
Paul Schoenfeld started it by taking one out to right-center, his sixth of the season. Kolby Felix followed with his 15th, to left-center, and Robert Sharrar hit his 20th of the season, crushing another one to the scoreboard in right-center.
That eight-pitch sequence put the Mavericks up 4-0, but the Grizzlies responded with five runs in the top of the third, including a three-run shot by Joseph Raker after Matt Bathauer struck out but reached first on a wild pitch to extend the inning.
The second streak was an inauspicious one — four straight batters were hit by pitches by reliever Will Cohen to open the bottom of the third. After Kennedy Hara was the fourth batter plunked, driving in the tying run, the Grizzlies went back to the bullpen. Wilhelm Lorenz was greeted by a two-run single off the bat of Schoenfeld and the Mavericks were on their way to a big inning.
By the time the inning ended — one that was so lengthy that CMU starter Cole Seward went to the batting cage to play catch — eight Mavericks had scored. Staked to a 12-5 lead, Seward put together a string of five consecutive strikeouts, retired eight straight batters and 11 of the next 12. He did surrender a two-run home run in the seventh, but finished with a career-high 10 strikeouts in seven innings. He didn't walk a batter and allowed seven runs on eight hits to improve to 9-1.
The Mavs' final streak was most unexpected, even by the player who provided it.
Sophomore third baseman Kennedy Hara, the No. 9 hitter in the lineup and the only man who didn't score in the third inning — he was stranded at third — launched his first home run of the season into the CMU bullpen behind the left field wall in the sixth inning.
In his next at-bat, in the eighth inning, Hara sent another ball into the bullpen and joked after the game on the post-game interview that he had "no idea where that came from. That's more home runs today than I've hit in bp this season."
Sharrar, who was recognized before the game as the RMAC co-Player of the Year, went 4 for 5 with one RBI and scored three runs. Schoenfeld drove in four runs on two hits, and Felix, Ethan Nunez and Jonathan Gonzalez had two hits each. Nunez received his RMAC Freshman of the Year plaque before the game.
Despite falling into a 15-5 hole, the Grizzlies, whose season ended at 24-28, came up with five runs over the seventh and eighth innings to make it interesting. CMU answered with one run in the bottom of each, and JJ Almeda retired the Grizzlies in order in the ninth to advance the Mavericks in the winners' bracket. CMU plays at 11 a.m. Friday against the winner of the late game between Regis and Colorado School of Mines.
The loser of Thursday's late game faces CSU Pueblo in an elimination game at 3 p.m. Friday.
Should CMU (36-16) win Friday morning, the Mavs would move to Saturday's championship game. A loss Friday morning would put them in an elimination game at 7 p.m. Friday.
