The Colorado Mesa baseball team rallied from down seven runs to complete a ninth inning walk-off win.
The Mavericks hosted Colorado Christian University Saturday evening. The Cougars jumped out to a 9-2 lead after a big third inning.
Colorado Mesa put a two spot up in the bottom of the first when Kyle Serrano drove in PJ Gonzalez on an infield single and a throwing error on CCU’s third baseman Bryce Brenton. Bligh Madris then flew out to left field and scored Serrano.
Chris Ramirez took the hill for the Mavericks and retired the first six batters he faced. Kaleb Johnson lead the 3rd inning off with a double and later scored on a Dakota Bayles single. The brought Cooper Gray up to the plate with two men on. Gray laced a line drive homer over the left field fence to give the Cougars a 4-1 lead. Scotty Wright singled and Alex Ginn doubled to score Wright and that ended the day for Ramirez. The Cougars would tack on two more runs extending their lead to 6-1.
An inning later the Cougars would tag new pitcher Jon Beaudrie for three more runs in the 4th inning. Wright added a two run single to his resume while Ginn added another RBI to his total when he singled home Wright.
Madris would respond in the bottom half has he lifted a high home run over the right field fence to cut CCU’s lead to 9-3.
Kyle Serrano lead the 6th inning off with a walk. Madris flew out and Trevin Reynolds walked to put two runners on for Zach McLeod. McLeod singled home Serrano and cut the deficit to 9-4. Reynolds scored when McLeod was caught in a rundown. After six innings the Mavericks trailed 9-5.
JJ Carr lead the 7th inning off with a walk and later scored on a Andrew Contreras double. Gonzalez was hit by a pitch and Tanner Nieslanik bunted for a hit to load the bases for Serrano who struck out swinging. Madris drove in a run on a fielder’s choice to cut the lead to 9-7. Garrett Ball pinch hit for Reynolds and reached on an error by CCU’s Bayles which allowed Gonzalez and Madris to come around to score tying the game at 9-9.
Bayles committed his second error of the game in the 9th inning when he let Madris reach. A Ball sacrifice bunt moved Madris to second. After McLeod popped up to shortstop, Will Dixon stepped into the batter’s box.
Dixon singled to left on a 3-1 pitch that scored Madris to cap off the comeback and give the Mavericks a walk-off win.
JR McDermott received the win as he relieved Eli Thornquist and pitched four innings while only surrendering one hit and striking out six.
The Mavericks have won 11 in a row and improved to 24-8 (16-2 RMAC) on the year. The Cougars fell to 13-20 (7-12 RMAC). The weekend will be capped off tomorrow as Colorado Mesa plays a double header against Colorado Christna at 12 p.m. and the second game against Colorado School of Mines with an approximate start time of 3:00 p.m.
