The Colorado Mesa University softball team went on the road again this weekend, and in their first doubleheader against Adams State University (ASU), they crushed in every which way possible. With a combined score of 28-5 from both games, the competition was never put into question.
In the first game, the total was a dominating 22-4 blowout with the Mavericks scoring 14 points in the sixth inning alone. CMU scored in every inning except the second.
In the first inning, Maggie Manwarren scored on a wild pitch and Brooke Hodgson followed when stealing second turned into a score on an error by center field. In the third, Hodgson homered to knock in two runs by bringing Alexandria Dufour around the bases with her. In the fourth, Dufour tripled, sending Manwarren home and Hodgson grounded out, allowing Dufour to score. In the fifth, the only score came from a home run hit by Zoe Pakes.
“We started off hitting pop flies,” head coach Garcia said. “We started to get base hit, hits up the middle and what we are supposed to do. Then, as a result, it was 14 hits later in an inning.”
By the start of the sixth inning, the Mavericks were leading 8-3. That is when the complete demolition would take place.
Seven different Mavericks hit for at least one RBI in the 14-run sixth inning. It all started with an AnnMarie Torres double that knocked in a run. Kellie Mcrofzca had a pair of singles in the sixth that allowed her to put up two RBI. Bailey Kleespies also had a pair of singles and RBI to match.
Brooke Hodgson also had an RBI single in which would give her in four on the day from going 3-4.
ASU tried to come back but only managed to score a single point, showing that the defense and pitching were solid as always. There were no errors form the defense and 11 total strikeouts: nine from Surface and two from Kimbri Herring. Surface did give up four runs from seven hits after only giving up one in two games against Chadron State the week before.
The offense has also been struggling a tad with hitting pop flies rather than consistently hitting it down the field and they will look to improve upon it going forward.
“We need to not really look to power the ball,” Garcia said. “Homeruns will come. We just need to hit the ball hard, it will find a hole.”
The second game proved there really close to no fault in the third best team in Div. II softball. A total of six points for the Mavericks, with at least one run in five out of the seven innings. The first run was an RBI single from Torres and Hodgson crossing home plate. Then the second run in the second inning was made with a single from Sarah Staudle and Kleespies running home. The fourth inning saw a home run by Kaila Jacobi which was followed in the sixth when Kleespies got an RBI double and was sent home from a sacrifice fly by Lexie Comer. The final run was a homer by Hodgson.
ASU scored only in the seventh, but CMU yet again had zero errors for the entire game, showing another strong performance defensively. Herring pitched all seven innings and struck out 12 batters which are a season-high for the junior. Herring also allowed only one run off of four hits.
“Kimbri pitched a great game,” Garcia said. “She struggled in the seventh inning, but she was in control the entire game.
CMU kept their perfect record rolling and improved to 16-0 on the season. They will attempt to sweep ASU on Saturday when they face off in another doubleheader.
