GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Looking to win their first series of the season, the Colorado Mesa University Softball Team did that and more this afternoon as they won the final two games of their four-game series with Colorado School of Mines at CMU Softball Field to sweep the series 4-0.
This comes as the Mavericks' first series sweep of the season after playing to splits the past two weekends and fairing 2-4 in Texas when they opened the year.
Following the two wins today, Colorado Mesa now improves to 10-8 on the season while moving to 8-4 in the RMAC to be tied for fourth place. Mines falls to 5-17 on the year with an RMAC record of 4-7.
Over the course of the 14 innings today the Mavs only allowed three runs against them while racking up 15 hits in return to never trail once in either game.
Below is a short recap of each game:
GAME 1 (CMU 5, MINES 1):
Playing to almost the same exact situation as game one of the series, the Mavs won their first game of the day on yet another exceptional pitching performance from Jessalyn Gallegos.
Gallegos, who has settled in as the #1 pitcher for the team, ended the game going all seven innings again with her allowing just six hits and one run while striking out six to improve to 4-1 on the season. Gallegos leads the team in almost every single pitching category this spring as she has now accumulated four complete games, with two coming from this weekend.
From the first inning on, Gallegos pitched with a lead as the Mavs' offense supported her well with runs coming in the first, third and fifth innings of the game.
In the first inning, Colorado Mesa was able to get on the board early as Myah Arrieta led the game off with a double before being moved to third on a line out by Chloe Valdez and then finally scoring on a wild pitch to start the game 1-0 in the Mavs favor.
Adding to that lead in the third was Valdez's help again as she launched a solo home run to center to now move the game to 2-0.
Trailing by two, the Orediggers got a run back in the top of the fifth inning from a solo shot by Lexie Semeyn but saw their comebacks efforts fall short as they allowed three more runs from the Mavs in the bottom of the inning to regrow the deficit to four.
Opening the bottom of the inning, the Mavs quickly put two runners on thanks to a walk and a hit by pitch. With runners on first and second, Makayla Westmoreland delivered a two RBI double to follow as she drove in both Ally Distler and Chloe Valdez to move the game to 4-1, before she eventually scored that inning as well thanks to a wild pitch.
Leading 5-1, Gallegos was able to close the game out for the following two innings, with her evading two hits in the seventh to stop a late rally and strike out the side.
In the full game, the Mavs only collected four hits total but used six walks and one hit by pitch to make for scoring come in times of need. Westmoreland and Valdez led the team with two and one RBIs apiece, with them being joined by Arrieta and Khloe Kubitscheck as the only players to record hits for Colorado Mesa.
GAME 2 (CMU 10, MINES 2):
Following a tighter first game, the Mavs were able to continue their timely hitting in game two of the day as they collected their first run-rule victory of the season in a 10-2 win in just five innings of play.
Over those five innings, the Mavs totaled 11 hits with four of them coming as extra base hits. In addition, the team was also able to steal six bases in the game with both Chloe Valdez and Makayla Westmoreland leading the team at two each.
Beginning the early scoring of the run-rule was Myah Arrieta as she added the first run of the game in the first inning on a first and third trick play with her taking home thanks to a Valdez stolen base at second.
Mines got a run back in the top of the second to tie the game up, but saw the tie be short lived as the duo of Jackie Oster and Ally Distler both drove in runs in the bottom of the inning to retake the lead.
Oster retook the lead initially on an RBI single down the left field line before bringing up Distler who hammered a double to center to bring in two more runs and move the game to 4-1.
Mines retaliated with a solo shot by Mines in the third, but saw Colorado Mesa begin their offensive onslaught over the course of the next two innings as they scored six unanswered runs.
In the fourth inning Arrieta, Westmoreland, Brynn Escobar and Khloe Kubitscheck all collected RBIs to add to the lead with Arrieta and Kubitscheck both hitting doubles. Valdez would also score that inning thanks to another wild pitch suffered by the Mines' pitching staff.
Leading 9-2 the Mavs finally ended the game in the fifth inning as Distler singled to left to drive in the team's 10th run and end the game in mercy rule.
Eight of the nine starters for Colorado Mesa collected hits in the win with Distler leading the team going 3-4 with three RBIs. Escobar added two hits herself with the six others having one hit apiece.
In the circle, Preslee Christensen got the start going two innings for the Mavs, before giving way to reliever Sophia Tassinari who pitched the final three innings. The pair combined to limit the Orediggers to just seven hits in the game with only two earned runs given up total. Tassinari earned the win in the game to improve to 3-2 on the season.
UP NEXT
Colorado Mesa will stay at home this next week again when they host New Mexico Highlands University for another conference series. Action is set to be played on Saturday and Sunday, March 8 and 9 with Saturday's games beginning at noon. Tickets for the games can be purchased in person at the field or online at cmumavericks.com/tickets.
