The Mesa State College Baseball team begins the season ranked 17th in NCAA D2, according to preseason polls. Coach Chris Hanks has five position starters returning from last season, along with two starting pitchers. The Mavericks are favored to win the Mountain West Division as well as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC).
Five players were named preseason All-RMAC players. Senior outfielder Greg Anderson, junior pitcher Kyle Davis, senior infielder Ken Evanson, junior catcher Chase Moore, and junior outfielder Jeff Popick.
The Mavs opened their season this past weekend against the second ranked team in the nation, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Tritons. It was a four game series against USCD, who already won three out of four games in a series against Western Oregon the week before.
On Feb. 11 in the opening game in La Jolla, Cali., the Mavericks faced one of the best pitchers in D2 baseball, Tim Shibuya. Shibuya has been named to the initial watch list for the 2011 Tino Martinez award, which is bestowed upon the most outstanding in NCAA D2 Baseball. There are only 90 players on the list.
Shibuya gave up five hits to the Mavericks in six innings without giving up a run. Right fielder Anderson was one of the few bright spots in the game for Mesa, he ended the night with three hits and reached base every time he got to the plate. Senior center fielder Ryan Shelton also collected two hits in the 1-6 Mavericks loss. Junior starting pitcher Tim Moore was ran out of the game after pitching just four and a third innings, giving up 10 hits, four earned runs, and three walks.
On Saturday in the first game of a double header it was a pitchers duel. Junior Dylan Evans pitched seven innings for the Mavs allowing two runs on four hits and striking out four. Mesa tied the game at two in the top of the ninth inning by capitalizing on two UCSD errors.
The game ended up going 11 innings and the Mavericks lost on a walk off single. They out hit UCSD (9-7) but they left eight men on base and were not able to come through in the clutch. Three Mavs had multi-hit games in Popick, Evanson, and junior first basemen Dustin Fackrell.
In game two of the double header the Mavs were shut out in a seven innings. They lost 3-0, and were held to just two hits and a total of four base runners by UCSD pitcher Daniel Simmons.
The series finale on Sunday would have been an exciting game to see. After being down 1-7 going into the eighth inning the Mavericks put a rally together. They scored two runs in the eighth to make the score 3-7. In the ninth they added on three more runs to make it 6-7 and there was only one out with guys on first and third. But the Mavs were unable to move the tying run across the plate.
Anderson once again led the team with four hits, two runs batted in (RBI), and two runs scored. Popick also collected two hits and two RBI. Sophomore lead off hitter Braden Box also had two hits, an RBI, and two runs scored. The team showed a lot of heart in the final game but just came up a little short.
“You know this series really helped us out a lot to see where we are as a ball club. What we need to work on and what not. Obviously our hitting needs some work, but then again this was the first action we had seen all year. They (UCSD) had played seven games already (three being exhibition games) before we played them so they are a little ahead of us,” Hanks said. “We had a chance to win three out of the four games but the timely hits were just absent.”
In the series the stand out player for Mesa was Anderson, he went 8-15 with two RBI, and two runs scored. Popick also had a good series going 4-11 with the three RBI. Evanson also collected four hits. The bullpen did a good job by keeping all of the games close. The Mavericks were outscored 9-19 in the four game series.
“Anderson is always ready to play. He just came out and his timing was on and did a great job getting on base.” Hank said. “Next week we head to Utah to Play Dixie State at their place and we need to learn from our mistakes this week and get those timely hits.”
Hanks is very proud of his team defensively as well as pitching. He believes once they get a few games under their belts the hitting will come along.
The Mavericks will now travel to St.George, Utah for a four game series against Dixie State Feb 18-20. The Mavericks home opener and RMAC opener will be on March 4-7 as they host the Metro State Roadrunners.
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afix@mesastate.edu