GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The Colorado Mesa baseball team fell in the first game of the NCAA South Central Super Regional to the UT-Tyler Patriots 21-15 on Thursday (May 21) evening at The Diamond at Hamilton Ballpark in front of a capacity crowd of 1,564 people.
Each team struck out 10 or more batters, walked 10 times, hit four batters and had over 200 pitches from their respective pitching staffs in the game. The biggest discrepancy came from the long ball where the Patriots had four home runs that contributed to seven runs while the Mavericks hit one home run that led to two runs.
UT Tyler had a seven-run top of the third inning that felt insurmountable at the time, but Colorado Mesa answered back with a seven-run inning of their own in the bottom of the fourth that made the score 10-10 after four innings of play.
The Patriots outscored the Mavericks 8-2 during a three-inning stretch from the fifth through the seventh innings that cemented the win as the two teams played even in the eighth and ninth innings.
First baseman
Landon Nunes led the Mavericks at the plate finishing 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two runs driven in. The senior had run scoring hits in the first and the second innings that helped build the 3-0 lead early.
Cameron Cartwright went 2-for-6 with a run scored and two runs driven in. The Parker, Colo. native delivered the Mavericks home run on the night with a two-run shot in the bottom of the night that cut into the Patriot lead.
Tate Blasi,
Rocco DiFrancesco,
Ezra Farmer, and
Joey Blank all had multi-hit games for the Mavericks.
Blasi had a spectacular defensive play in the top of the fourth inning. Patriot Tyler Hornback drove a ball to deep left center field that would have been a home run. Blasi scaled the fence and robbed a home run from Hornback.
For the fourth straight NCAA Tournament game, the Mavericks scored 15 runs with all four occasions coming against Lone Star Conference opponents.
Every player in both starting lineups had at least one hit and one run scored while only three of the 18 starters didn't record an RBI.
Redshirt freshman righthander
Jett Walker was saddled with the loss to drop to 4-3 on the season.
The Mavericks record falls to 52-6 on the season and lost for just the second time at home.
Game two of the series will be tomorrow night at 7pm from The Diamond with the Mavericks season on the line. If Colorado Mesa wins, they would force a Game Three on Saturday evening at 7pm while a loss would end their season.
