Chrissy Anzlovar/Criterion

The Mesa State baseball team (32-16, 24-10 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) finished its season with a bang, going 5-2 over its final two series.
The Mavericks began the week with a rough outing against Dixie State.  Nothing seemed to be working. The Maverick’s starting pitcher Scott Bachman (3-5) lasted only two innings, and the Mesa bullpen couldn’t do much better as the pitching staff collectively gave up 16 runs on 19 hits. The offense struggled as well, with Brian Bello’s solo homerun highlighting a nine hit outing where the Mavericks fell 16-2.
“We’ve known our guys are character guys the whole season,” coach Chris Hanks said. “I think we didn’t really play sharp out there, but we know they’re character guys.”
Things quickly turned around for the Mavericks as they rebounded behind a stellar pitching performance in Mike Sutton’s second start of the season. Sutton (1-1) struggled with control, walking five batters, but surrendered only four hits and struck four over his four inning start.
Timely hitting during the first two innings helped the Mavericks as leadoff man Greg Anderson notched the only multi-hit game.  Jeff Popick’s two RBI single, Chase Moore’s solo home run, and Anderson’s RBI double gave the Mavericks an early four runs and a lead they wouldn’t surrender, as they went on to win 5-3.
“For pitchers we need to work on getting hitters in negative counts,” Hanks said. “We need to get them behind in the count and go after them from there.”
Starter Derek Riley (3-4) put the Mavericks in a hole early, and they couldn’t fight their way out of it. In one third of an inning, Riley gave up four earned runs and walked two, before being replaced by Taylor Hamilton, who quickly ended the Dixie State’s offensive threat with a double play to end the inning.
The Maverick outfield of Bello, Anderson, and Popick each had multi-hit games, but the Maverick’s offense could only push across two runners as they were defeated 7-2.
Once again, the Mavericks turned things around quickly, but waited until the last possible moment to do so. After falling behind 11-3, the Mavericks put together a strong sixth inning. Bello led off with a double to the fence, and after a groundout, Anderson doubled him in. Following a strike out, back-to-back walks loaded the bases for the Mavericks, and Lucas Shaw delivered a single up the middle to score two runs. An error by the Dixie State third baseman allowed the Mavericks to score their fourth run of the inning.
Mesa State relief pitcher Tim Moore (2-0) quickly shut down the Dixie offense in the top of the seventh inning, leaving the Mavericks trailing by four runs entering the final half inning.
Bello led off with a walk, and advanced to second on a single by Austin Buck. Anderson knocked a run in with a double, and Ryan Shelton notched another RBI with a single. Brett Nigbur recorded an RBI on a fielder’s choice and became the winning run on first base. Kevin Becker came in to pinch hit, and laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners to second and third. With the winning run on second base, Peter Arakawa was brought in to pinch run for the Mavericks. With two runners in scoring position Erik Nordine hit a slow-roller past the second baseman. The tying run scored easily, and Arakawa was waved around from third. The throw beat Arakawa by a few strides, but Arakawa slid around the tag to secure the 12-11 comeback victory for the Mavericks.
“It feels real good,” Nordine said of his game winning hit. “We need to get consistent, win, and get some momentum for the RMAC (Tournament).”
The Mavericks finished out their week by sweeping Colorado Christian in a three game series, winning 27-1, 19-10, and 12-4.
During their 27 run blow-out, the Mavericks recorded 30 hits, including an at least one RBI from every Maverick starter, and Popick notched a season high six RBIs.
Mesa State’s Chris Shea (8-3) tossed a seven inning shut-out, striking out eight before surrendering to the bullpen, who gave up CCU’s only run of the game.
During the second game of the series, Kyle Davis (7-0), compared to his previous starts, had a rough outing but still picked up the win. He gave up six runs, five earned, over 5 1/3 innings while striking out three and walking three.
The Maverick offense was still firing on all cylinders, as seven out of the nine Maverick starters recorded multi-hit games, and every starter had an RBI as the Mavericks picked up their third straight victory.
The Mavericks offense had another astounding performance during their final game of the regular season, highlighted by Chase Moore’s four RBI performance, which included a homerun.
Dylan Evans (6-2) picked up the win on the mound for the Mavericks, scattering six hits over six innings, and surrendered two earned runs while striking out six batters.
The Mavericks look to carry the momentum from their four game win streak into the RMAC tournament. Mesa State received the three seed in the RMAC tournament and will face off with four seed Metro State College in the first round at the University of Nebraska-Kearney. The game will be played at 10 a.m. Wednesday.