GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa third baseman
Joey Blank delivered a two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Mavericks their first lead of the night and one they wouldn't relinquish in a 12-10 win over the Regis Rangers in the opening round of the RMAC Tournament on Wednesday (May 6) evening at The Diamond at Hamilton Ballpark.
The Mavericks trailed 10-9 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning before
Trevor Tse led the inning off with a single to left field. Two outs later,
Landon Nunes was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second with two outs in the inning.
That brought
Joey Blank to the plate and he punched a two-run double to left center field on a full count with both Tse and Nunes scoring on the play. It was the first and last lead of the game for the Mavericks at 11-10.
Regis jumped out to the early lead as they plated five in the top of the first inning before the Mavericks answered with four runs of their own in the bottom half of the first.
Colorado Mesa would trail for the next six innings as both teams scored two in the second, one in the third and two in the fourth.
Justin Schramm climbed atop the mound in the top of fourth inning and gave Colorado Mesa some stability. He pitched the next three innings and allowed just two hits and striking out four.
Cayden Clark earned the win on the mound as he allowed a walk and a hit in an inning of work. He is now 5-0 on the season with all his appearances coming in relief.
Sage Ferguson worked a scoreless ninth for his sixth save of the season.
Kolby Felix and
Ezra Farmer each finished with three hits in the game while Nunes finished with two hits.
Felix sent the second pitch of the Mavericks half of the first over the wall in left center field for his 16
th home run of the season.
Landon Nunes hit his fourth home run of the season in the bottom half of the third inning. The senior sent an 0-1 pitch over the wall in center field that cut the Rangers lead to one at the time.
Colorado Mesa improved its record to 46-4 on the season and advance to play against CSU Pueblo at 3:00pm tomorrow in the RMAC Tournament. The ThunderWolves fell to UCCS in the opening round of the tournament.
