Man…how come the best moments always seem to happen on the road where there was no way to watch?
Thank God for social media and the phone videos that were able to capture the amazing moment when Bailee Kleespies knocked her second grand slam of the day over the fence to walk off the University of Hawaii-Hilo 8-5.
Kleespies’ four-hit and 11-RBI day this last Saturday was one of the many highlights in the Colorado Mesa University softball’s opening weekend in which they went 4-1 in sunny St.George, UT.
Here are some things we learned from these first five games:
The hitting is still as good as it was last year
If you aren’t convinced, go back and watch the grand slams Bailee Kleepsies hit against St.Mary’s University and Hawaii-Hilo then think again.
The Maverick offense that led the entire Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) last year in team batting average, slugging percentage, runs, home runs and RBIs hasn’t seemed to miss a stride.
CMU’s bats are sitting at a team .376 average through the five games which currently leads the conference and six team home runs are a nice cherry on top. Freshman Camryn Mullen and senior Brooke Doumer are both sitting at or a above a .500 batting average and have combined for nine RBI off their 18 hits.
Hailey Hinson collected the second most bags out of the entire lineup and currently has twice as many home runs through the first five games (two) than she had in the entirety of the 2019 season.
There is some young talent brewing
It isn’t unknown that each season brings a new team than the year prior, especially in college athletics. The Mavericks lost a decent number of impactful seniors due to graduation but have since plugged those holes with formittable underclassmen talent.
The best hitter over the weekend was freshman Camryn Mullen. The Brighton native was a four time First-Team All Conference player for Prairie View High School. She currently leads the team in hits, batting average and RBIs.
The pair of hard hitting sophomores in Lauren Wedman and Ashley Bradford both stared the first five games and performed rather well at the plate. Bradford went 3-4 and contributed two of the 15 runs CMU scored against St. Mary’s. Wedman, who started in 31 games in 2019, had a hit in all five games and reached base 50 percent of her at bats.
There shouldn’t be a concern moving forward about the depth of inexperience of the underclassmen at least for a while.
CMU’s newest transfers are already making an impact
The pitching rotation was centered around Cal-State San Marcos transfer Ellie Smith. The sophomore joined CMU mid-year at the start of the spring semester and was able to start three times this last weekend. Smith poised a 2.77 ERA and struck out 20 batters in her five appearances.
Loveland native and Otero JC transfer, Taylor Trembling was worked into the lineup a few times and managed to squeeze out two hits in only thee at-bats. Both of the times she reached the bases she ended up scoring.
The Mavericks will continue their road-tripping and packed weekend play when they another five games from Feb. 13-15 down in Tucson, AZ. They will meet up with St. Mary’s again, who are part of the six-team field, while also playing some games against Eastern New Mexico, West Texas A&M and the No. 2 team in the country in Texas A&M-Kingsville.
