GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — The No. 12 Colorado Mesa baseball team slugged its way to a three-game sweep of Rollins College, wrapping it up Sunday with a 20-10 victory at The Diamond at Hamilton Ballpark.
The sweep ended a two-year span of the teams winning two of three at their home parks. The Mavericks (33-10) return to Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play on Thursday, needing to beat MSU Denver only once in the four-game series to secure their 13th consecutive conference title and host the RMAC Tournament from May 7-10.
Colorado Mesa is 23-3 in the RMAC, owning a three-game lead on Regis (20-6) and has the tiebreaker on the Rangers by sweeping the doubleheader a week ago. The final two games were canceled by weather in Denver.
MSU Denver is in third place at 21-7. CSU Pueblo, Adams State and CU-Colorado Springs have all clinched tournament berths.
In Sunday's 3 1/2-hour marathon, neither starting pitcher made it out of the 44-minute first inning, with both teams sending 10 men to the plate and scoring four runs apiece.
Colorado Mesa starter David Craig faced six batters without recording an out, allowing four runs on four hits and two walks. Rollins starter Tyler Toro faced eight batters, getting only one out, and allowed four runs on three hits, walking three.
Jordan Pace (2-0) settled things down with three scoreless innings of relief and Gauge Lockhart, the Mavs' No. 1 starter, got two innings of work in out of the bullpen, allowing one run. He was the third of eight CMU pitchers used — Rollins sent six men to the mound, with AJ Seymour (0-3) taking the loss, allowing five runs over 3 1/3 innings.
After tying the game in the first, the Mavs scratched out one run in the second, then scored 10 runs over the fourth and fifth innings to take command.
Up 9-4 in the top of the fifth, CMU's defense came up with the play of the day. With runners on second and third with no out, Corey Zientek lifted a fly ball to center field, getting one run home. Paul Schoenfeld threw a strike to third baseman Josh Romans to complete the rare double play from the outfield. The tag at third to get Mason Wilson held up under review, and Lockhart struck out the next batter to end the inning.
With two out in the bottom of the fifth, Joey Blank singled and Stevenson Reynolds was hit by a pitch. Kennedy Hara drove a home run over the wall in left-center, his fourth of the season, to put CMU up 12-5. Josh Romans walked and came around to score on Schoenfeld's double to right.
Kolby Felix followed with his 10th home run of the season and the Mavs had a 10-run cushion, 15-5.
Reynolds hit a two-run home run to left in the sixth, his eighth of the season, and Cameron Cartwright hit his team-leading 13th home run in the seventh.
Rollins (27-16) put up four runs in the seventh to somewhat close the gap.
The teams combined to score 30 runs on 33 hits, with five doubles and five home runs on the wind-swept afternoon.
Schoenfeld continued his torrid hitting streak, leading off the bottom of the first with a base hit to extend his streak to 22 games and went 3 for 4, as did Reynolds, who drove in seven runs. Cartwright and Blank each went 3 for 5.
The final RMAC series of the season begins at 6:05 p.m. on Thursday at Suplizio Field in the Mavericks' annual fireworks game. Friday's doubleheader begins at 3 p.m. at The Diamond at Hamilton Ballpark, with Saturday's finale at 1 p.m. Saturday is Senior Day, with the Mavs recognizing their 23-man senior class.
