GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Scoring in each of the first six innings, the No. 12 Colorado Mesa baseball team won the outright Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship Friday with an 11-2 victory over MSU Denver in the second game of a doubleheader at The Diamond at Hamilton Ballpark.
After dropping the opener 9-3, the Mavericks (35-11, 25-4 RMAC) hit five home runs in the second game and got a quality five-inning start from Liam Hohenstein (4-3) to split the day.
Colorado Mesa wraps up the regular season at noon Saturday at The Diamond, with Senior Day festivities beginning at 11:40 a.m.
The Roadrunners (30-19, 22-9) put up three runs in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings in the opener, erasing the Mavs' early 1-0 lead on Paul Schoenfeld's RBI single in the third inning. Schoenfeld went 2 for 4 in the first game and 1 for 4 in the second, extending his hitting streak to 25 games, six off Joe Dirnburger's program record of 31.
Sage Ferguson (3-1) allowed four runs on four hits in 4 1/3 innings, striking out five, but MSU Denver used a pair of home runs, a two-run shot in the fourth by Jesse Velders and a three-run blast in the sixth by Cam Yuran, to take control.
CMU cut the deficit to 6-3 in the fifth when Schoenfeld singled and Kolby Felix followed with a double to left. Cameron Cartwright scored Schoenfeld with a base hit to left and Ethan Nunez lifted a sacrifice fly to left to score Felix.
MSU Denver reliever Kobe Krenz retired the final seven batters of the game.
Hohenstein and Aidan Biaggi combined to allow only four hits in the second game, striking out 11 and walking only one.
Schoenfeld led off the bottom of the first with a double down the right field line. He took third when Drew Peters' pickoff throw sailed into the outfield, then scored on a balk when Peters stumbled during his delivery and failed to throw the ball.
Cartwright hit a solo home run to center for a 2-0 lead, Josh Romans hit a solo shot to center and Felix added a two-run home run to left center in the third.
Another run came home in the third and Felix hit his second home run of the game in the fourth for a 7-2 lead.
Max Berni, who started at third for the first time since the opening week of the season, crushed a three-run home run to center in the Mavs' four-run fifth inning, putting the game out of reach.
Hohenstein overcame a pair of first-inning errors to get out of that inning unscathed, surrendered a two-run home run in the second, but worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth inning by getting Yuran on a called third strike.
In the third, Andrew Biddle reached on an error, and with one out, Hohenstein caught Velders looking at a third strike as Biddle took off for second. Catcher Rocco DeFrancesco threw a perfect strike to second to end the inning. Hohenstein struck out seven and didn't walk a batter, with Biaggi throwing two shutout innings of relief, allowing one hit, walking one and striking out four.
Berni and Felix drove in three runs each, Felix was 3 for 4 and Stevenson Reynolds, Kennedy Hara and DeFrancesco each had two hits in CMU's 13-hit attack.
The Mavericks will host the RMAC Tournament next week, with three games Wednesday through Friday, with the title game Saturday. The tournament champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II South Central Regional playoffs. CMU, which has won 13 consecutive RMAC regular-season titles, is ranked third in the region behind Angelo State and Texas-Tyler.
