From the diamond to the turf field, Colorado Mesa University (CMU) hosted six games, all starting in a four-hour span. CMU went 5-1 across baseball, softball and men’s and women’s lacrosse.
The most exciting games of the day were at the softball field, where CMU hosted a double header with Metro State University-Denver (MSU-D). The two schools have a storied rivalry and are both contenders to win the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) again this year.
Game one of the series was an awesome pitching duel. MSU-D freshman Cheyenne Prieto and the Mavericks junior Hannah Sattler both pitched complete games, only allowing five total earned runs.
In the top of the seventh inning, Sattler got the final out on her 115th pitch in the game and stranded two MSU-D baserunners, keeping the game tied at 2-2.
Then, redshirt junior Sarah Jorissen hit a two-run walk-off home run to win the game 4-2 for the Mavericks. After the dramatic win, both teams went back at it 30 minutes later for game two.
In game two, the Mavericks found themselves in a similar position as game one and trailed 7-6 in the bottom of the 10th inning. Once again, the Mavericks continued the heroics and hit another two-run walk-off homerun, this time from the bat of redshirt senior Brandi Haller, to win 8-7.
While the softball team had their incredible comeback wins, across the field the 21st-ranked CMU baseball team hosted a double header against Regis University (RU) at the same time.
Unfortunately for the Mavericks, they suffered a rare RMAC loss in the first half of the double header in a low-scoring 4-1 loss. Maverick pitchers pitched well enough to win, but the offense could only produce three hits in support.
However, in the second game, the baseball team joined the softball team’s walk-off party when junior Robert Sharrar hit a walk-off single in extra innings to win 2-1.
While Sharrar was the hero offensively, graduate student Anthony Durbano was excellent on the mound. The traditional closer had an extended assignment and pitched the final 3 ⅓ innings, allowing zero runs.
As the diamonds at CMU were packed with exciting, close games, the story was different across campus at Community Hospital Unity Field for the lacrosse games. The men’s and women’s teams both had blowout victories over Westminster College (WC).
For the women’s team, they came into the matchup 3-4, with all of their losses coming to teams ranked in the top 20 nationally.
Unfazed by the tough stretch of losses, the Mavericks came out on fire against WC. Just five minutes into the game, redshirt junior Kiley Davis had a hat trick and the Mav’s led 5-0. Five minutes later, the team added five more goals, leading 10-0 after the first quarter.
The domination continued, as the squad ultimately won 18-7 and moved into first place in the RMAC.
The men’s lacrosse team took the field after the women’s game for their first home game of the season. The WC team will be the most difficult test in RMAC play for the 14th-ranked Mavericks, and they passed with flying colors, winning 23-8.
While the Mavericks were up a whole lot, a special goal came in the 3rd quarter for redshirt junior Jed Brummett. The attackmen scored his 100th goal in his career, becoming the third Maverick in program history to do so.
Even after head coach Troy Moyer took out the starters, the bench players for the Mav’s maintained the high level of play to secure the blowout win, pushing the team record to 9-2.
It was a crazy day in CMU athletics, with all six games taking place between 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. A lot of credit has to go to the athletic department who were able to stream all games live on the RMAC Network, while fully staffing each event.
