Top RMAC team sweeps Eagles in home debut

Top-ranked RMAC opponent Colorado Mesa showed why they lead the conference this weekend, sweeping the Eagles in four games during CSC’s home debut. Saturday the Eagles lost 6-0 and 12-7 to the Mavericks, and Sunday they were defeated 16-4 and 5-6.

During the weekend’s second game, Saturday, the Eagles led 5-2 entering the fourth inning, but an offensive onslaught from the Mavericks gave Mesa the game-controlling lead. 

Freshman Jordan Hays, of Grand Junction, Colorado, started the Maverick’s rally by hitting a solo home run to begin the top of the fourth. 

Following the game-tying run by Lauren Wedmen, freshman of Tucson, Arizona,  who was advanced to home plate by a sacrifice bunt from A. Bradford, sophomore Alexa Samuels, of Arvada, Colorado, hit a three-run home run to put Mesa up 8-5. 

The Eagles cut their deficit to one run in the bottom of the fifth when Kayla Michel, senior of Brighton, Colorado, hit a two-run home run to make the score 8-7. But the Mavericks would add four more runs to their lead in the sixth and seventh innings, winning 12-7. 

The weekend’s final game, Sunday, provided a similar outcome for the Mavericks, as the Eagles were unable to preserve their early 5-3 lead entering the fifth inning. 

At the bottom of the second inning, Eagle freshman Haleigh Hoefs, of Lincoln, drove in two runs on a single to the infield to give CSC its 5-3 lead.  

The Eagles would hold onto that lead until the top of the fifth.  

With two outs Mesa senior Kaila Jacobi, of Scottsdale, Arizona, batted in Junior Brooke Doumer, of Parker, Colorado, who CSC pitcher Gabby Russell, sophomore of Oceanside, California, hit with a pitch in the first at bat of the inning. Mesa’s next hitter, Samuels, then hit a two-run home run, putting the Mavericks up 6-5. 

The home run proved the game winner as the Eagles did not score in the final two innings.

The Mavericks dominated both opening games of the weekend.

Game three saw the Eagles lead 2-1 entering the third inning as Hoefs a two-run home run during her first at bat for the Eagles. 

The Mavericks quickly scored 13 runs in the third inning, however, to lead 14-2. The Eagles made three changes at pitcher during this stretch as Cassidy Horn, freshman of Colorado Springs, Colorado was relieved by Peyton Propp, freshman of Lakewood, Colorado, but Horn came back in and was relieved by Gabby Russell, sophomore of Oceanside, California. CSC’s Michel hit a two-run homerun in response to Mesa’s big third inning, making the score 14-4. The Mavericks scored two more runs in the fifth inning, winning 16-4 in five innings.

Colorado Mesa shutout CSC in the weekend’s first game as Kimbri Herring, senior of Stansbury, Utah allowed three hits on 79 pitches. Annmarie Torres, junior of Wheat Ridge, Colorado, hit a three-run homerun at the top of the second inning making the score 5-0. Torres scored the game’s final run off a double by Samuel, leading the Mavericks to a 6-0 win.

The Eagles currently sit at the bottom of the RMAC with a 7-20 conference record and host Dixie State, who ranks fourth in the RMAC with a 20-8 conference record, Saturday at noon and 2 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.