GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The Colorado Mesa University Softball Team takes on perhaps their biggest challenge of the season this weekend as they continue their stay on the road for a second week when they head to Lakewood to take on rival Colorado Christian University in a battle of the conference's top teams.
Heading into this weekend Colorado Mesa has just a one game battle on Colorado Chrisitan for the lead of the conference as the Cougars have been the top team every week prior to the Mavericks taking it. The Mavericks sit at 29-9 overall with an RMAC record of 27-5 to just beat out the Cougars who are 30-12 (26-6 RMAC).
Games this weekend will be played All Star Park on Saturday and Sunday, April 12 and 13 with action on Saturday beginning at noon and Sunday beginning at 11 A.M.
LAST TIME OUT
In what has become a constant trend of the program this season, the Mavs won their sixth consecutive series this past weekend as they swept Fort Lewis College.
Playing in a revised weekend schedule due to weather forecasts this past Saturday the Mavs won all four games during their Sunday, Monday stay in Durango with two of them coming via run-rule. As a whole the Mavs scored a total of 44 runs in the series while holding the Skyhawks to just seven in return.
In their game one, come from behind win, they took a 3-2 win thanks to a 3-run go-ahead Myah Arrieta home run in the top of the sixth after the Skyhawks led 2-0 through five innings. Every game past that was decided by six runs or more.
Bella Aragon and Olivia Litzen led all batters hitting .571 on the weekend with each of them going 4-7. Aragon also added five walks to have an on-base percentage of .750 during the series.
Doing the brunt of the run damage was Ally Distler and Myah Arrieta with the pair combining for 17 RBIs. Distler recorded two home runs in the series to bring her career total to 58, best for second all-time in program history, with Arrieta also having a home run herself to now be at 54 in her career for a tie at third most.
Chloe Valdez and Jackie Oster both had home runs as well in the series.
Jessalyn Gallegos led all pitchers going 2-0 in her two starts to improve to 14-1 on the season. Gallegos totaled 13 innings on the weekend while striking out 15 and holding opponents to batting just .229 against her.
Preslee Christensen and Marisa Nehm collected the other two wins to bolster a staff that held a 1.68 ERA over the four games.
LOOKING AT THE NUMBERS
Staying on par with being a top batting team in the conference the Mavs are hitting .328 this season with them slugging .560 and having an on base percentage of .412. They have recorded a total of 50 homeruns as well which leads the conference and sits in the top 10 of the nation.
The Mavs average seven runs per game and in their total of 38 games have won by run rule 11 different times.
Myah Arrieta leads the team with a batting average of .459 this spring recording 56 hits and owning an OPS of 1.464. She's also hit 14 home runs to tie for the team lead with her extra base hit count at 25.
Following behind as the team's other top bats have been the group of Makayla Westmoreland (.361), Ally Distler (.348), Chloe Valdez (.321) and Khloe Kubitschek (.306) who all have started 36 games or more each.
Cailynn Parsons and Bella Aragon have each had much success lately as well with Parsons' batting .412 since returning from injury and Aragon sitting at .360.
Tying with Arrieta's homerun lead is Distler who has hit 14 long balls. In addition, Distler, Westmoreland and Valdez have all recorded 10 or more doubles.
Distler has 50 RBIs to sit as the team's leader with Arrieta having 46 for second best and Valdez having 28 in third place.
In the circle the Mavs are the second-best pitching team in the conference behind CCU with their team ERA sitting at 2.74.
Through 245.2 innings pitched they've limited opponents to just 241 hits and 96 earned runs while having a batting average against of .254.
Jessalyn Gallegos continues as the team's top arm this spring owning a record of 14-1 with a 1.92 ERA. Gallegos has totaled 21 appearances this season with her going a complete game 13 times and striking out 120 batters.
Accompanying Gallegos as the team's other main starting pitchers are the pair of Preslee Christensen and Sophia Tassinari who each are at 14 appearances. Christensen is currently 6-3 with a 3.11 ERA while Tassinari is 5-3 with a 3.36 ERA.
In the bullpen has been Marisa Nehm and Kamdyn Hagerty who are each 2-1 with a combined 13 appearances. Both hold sub-five ERAs.
ABOUT COLORADO CHRISTIAN
Facing off for the first time since last year's regional tournament matchup the Cougars enter this week with a 30-12 record while going 26-6 in conference play. They are one of the only two teams in the conference with 30 wins so far this season and have now reached that mark for the fourth straight year.
Despite the team's highly successful record they have gone through some tough battles as of late with them splitting their last two weekends of play going 4-4 in that stretch against MSU Denver and Black Hills State.
Last time both teams met was in Tyler, Texas in last year's regional tournament where CCU won the first game 3-1 with Colorado Mesa then winning the following contest 5-0. In the series history, the Mavs own a 34-22 advantage.
The Cougars are hitting .334 as a team while having nine different players own averages above .300. Leah Garcia stands as the team leader at .397 with her owning 52 hits and 37 runs.
She is joined by Rachel Williams (.363), Danae Lopez (.343), Elyse McMullin (.340), Kat Hanson (.324), Lauren Garcia (.322), Cheyenne Stark (.316), Mia Stankiewicz (.309) and Peyton Marvel (.308) who have all fared well at the plate.
Colorado Christian is also the best defensive team in the conference with them fielding .974 as a squad and only owning 31 errors through 281.1 innings of play.
Owning a team ERA of 2.31, the Cougars are the best pitching staff in the RMAC with opponents hitting just .230 off them.
Emma Duncan and Elyse McMullin have served as the team's main two arms combining for 23 of the teams wins through 35 appearances.
Duncan in 13-2 this season with a 1.63 ERA while McMullin is 10-7 with a 2.99 ERA. Four other arms have rounded out the team's bullpen with each of them owning sub-four ERAs and totaling 86.2 innings.
HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN
All four games this weekend will be streamed on the RMAC Network free of charge and have live stats available to follow along with as well.
