SPEARFISH, S.D. – The Colorado Mesa University Softball Team played to a pair of tough-fought victories this afternoon as they concluded the regular season with a series win over the Black Hills State Yellow Jackets at Yellow Jacket Field.
Winning the final two games of the series, the Mavericks won by scores of 6-5 and 12-8 in the last doubleheader of the season with this being their eighth series won overall. They conclude the regular season with a 37-13 record while going 35-9 in the RMAC. Black Hills State finished their regular season campaign as well with a 27-25 record, going 25-19 in the RMAC.
Both team's seasons are far from over though as each school is qualifiers for the RMAC Softball Championship which takes place next week at #1 seed Colorado Christian University. The Mavs will be the #2 seed heading into the Championship with Black Hills sitting as the #6 seed.
Below is a short recap of each game:
GAME 1 (CMU 6, BHSU 5; 10 inn.):
Needing just one out to end the game in seven innings, the Mavericks worked their way to a different finish to start the day as they prevailed 6-5 in 10 innings for an extra innings affair.
This was just the third extra innings game of the year for Colorado Mesa with them now 2-1 in the three contests. The last time they played 10 or more innings was on April 12 against Colorado Christian.
Before the dramatic win in the 10th inning, the Mavs had a very different look early in the game as they led the Yellow Jackets from the first inning until the bottom of the seventh.
In that time, they scored in both the first and second innings while adding a pair in the fourth and one more in the sixth.
In the first they got off to a quick start by relying on Chloe Valdez to drive in Myah Arrieta with each of them tabbing hits in their first at bats. It was then in the second inning that Bella Aragon drove in another run with her hitting a slap-hit single to the third basemen.
Continuing to build the lead in the fourth was Khloe Kubitschek as she hit an RBI single for the first run. Arrieta then brought in the next run on a ground ball double play.
Ava Stephens launched a solo home run in the sixth inning to make it 5-0 to follow. This was Stephens' first home run of her collegiate career.
The Yellow Jackets added a pair of runs back in the bottom of the sixth inning on RBI singles to cut the lead to three but couldn't muster anymore offense until their emphatic come back in the seventh.
Holding CMU scoreless in the top of the frame, Black Hills went on to score three runs in the bottom of the inning as they came down to their last out before one swing changed the game.
Getting down to two outs with only one runner on base, the Yellow Jackets were able to extend their inning with a sequence of a single and then a massive three-run shot by Carly Reyes Mims to tie the ball game up.
Heading into extras, the Mavs fought off further attempts by the Yellow Jackets to win the game with them working around one hit in both the eighth and ninth innings.
The 10th then proved to be the final inning of the game as the Mavs scored on a miscue with Kubitschek coming around to score on a wild pitch after reaching prior on a single.
Black Hills threatened to score in the bottom of the inning with two runners reaching base, but Colorado Mesa pitching came out ahead as they forced three of the final four batters to ground out.
Three pitchers pieced together the efforts in the circle for Colorado Mesa with Preslee Christensen ultimately being the winning pitcher as she closed out the game for the final two innings. Prior to Christensen both Jessalyn Gallegos and Sophia Tassinari pitched in the battle as well with Gallegos going seven innings in her start for the no decision. Tassinari went one inning of relief in the eighth.
Despite the game being tight, offensively the Mavs still totaled a staggering 13 hits on their part with both Stephens and Kubitschek having a three-hit day. Valdez, Aragon and Oliva Litzen added two-hit days to pace the attack.
GAME 2 (CMU 12, BHSU 8):
Searching for a series win to end the regular season the Mavericks built upon their tight win in the opening game of the day as they beat the Yellow Jackets 12-8 to finish the series.
The Mavs collected an early 11-0 lead to hold down the Yellow Jackets as they then had enough offense to fight off a late comeback attempt. Of those 11 runs, six of them came in the second inning.
Chloe Valdez drove in the lone run in the first inning to give the initial lead to Colorado Mesa with the team then exploding for 10 more over the next couple frames.
In the six-run second inning, the group of Bella Aragon, Myah Arrieta, Cailyn Parsons, Valdez and Olivia Litzen all collected RBIs with there being eight different Mavericks to reach base.
Adding four more runs in the third inning was then the trio of Arrieta, Valdez and Litzen who drove in more runs for the team.
The Yellow Jackets retaliated by scoring seven unanswered runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, but couldn't muster more than three runs in an inning to bring the deficit smaller than four.
Parsons added a run back in the top of the seventh inning to regrow the lead to five with her driving in Arrieta on an RBI single.
Fighting off a last chance rally by the Yellow Jackets once more, the Mavs gave up one run in the bottom of the seventh, but closed the game out by relying on relief by Preslee Christensen for the second time of the day.
Colorado Mesa totaled 11 hits in the win with three players having multi hit performances. Arrieta and Parsons led all players going 4-5 with five combined RBIs. Aragon added a 2-4 showing. Valdez finished hitless but recorded four RBIs to serve as the team's leader.
Maria Nehm earned the win in the circle going five strong innings for the Mavs while scattering five hits with five runs. Nehm improved to 3-2 on the season with this being just her second start of the spring. Kamdyn Hagerty and Christensen both pitched in relief over the final two innings.
UP NEXT
The Mavs will head to Lakewood once more this season as they transition into postseason play this following week when they take part in the 2025 RMAC Softball Championship.
The Championship will run from Wednesday, April 30 to Saturday, May 4 with the conference's top six teams earning bids. Colorado Mesa enters as the #2 seed earning them a first round bye and having their first game of the tournament take place on Thursday, May 1 at 11 A.M. They will take on the winner of the 3 vs. 6 seed. MSU Denver is the #3 seed with Black Hill State serving as the #6 seed.
Details can be found on the RMAC website with more information to be released in the following days.
