By Jordan Long
The Colorado Mesa University Mavericks’ baseball team won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Baseball Tournament for the 4th straight year, beating Colorado School of Mines 15-7 on Saturday. The Mavericks earned the automatic bid to the South Central Regional Tournament. They were hoping to host it for the fourth straight season, but had to wait until Sunday to find out. They ended up 2nd in the regional rankings meaning they have to head to Angelo State in San Angelo, Texas. Was this the right decision?
In the regular season Colorado Mesa ended up with a record of 44-10 and a conference record of 32-4. Angelo State concluded the year 41-13 overall and 17-6 in the Lone Star Conference. The Mavs ended up finishing the year 3 games better than Angelo State.
In regular season play, Angelo State didn’t lose a 4 game set but split 4 times. Their longest winning streak was 12. Colorado Mesa ended up with 22 wins in a row and only two splits during the course of the year. Mesa was the better team in regular season play. Both teams ended up winning the regular season title of their conferences meaning they would be the top seed in their baseball tournaments.
Colorado Mesa cruised through the RMAC Baseball Tournament by winning all 4 of their games this past weekend. The closest game was on Friday. Mesa was tied with Mines at 3 going to the bottom of the 9th. Third baseman JJ Carr singled to bring in Jon Ballard for the walk-off victory. After that it was smooth sailing for the Mavs to win the tournament.
The same can’t be said for Angelo State. They beat Cameron University in their first game on Thursday. On Friday West Texas A&M beat them 3-5 meaning they were in the loser’s bracket. Another loss and their tournament was over. They had to play again on Friday, a rematch with Cameron University, which they won 10-3 to advance to the championship game. They had to beat West Texas A&M twice but they failed as they were defeated 9-6.
This all was looking like Mesa would host for the 4th year in a row. Mesa won their Conference Tournament and Angelo State didn’t. Heading into Sunday, Mesa was number 2 in the rankings. It looked like they did enough to jump into the #1 position. In the end, the regional rankings didn’t change as Angelo State stayed at #1. Mesa is #2 and heads to Texas. It shows that winning a conference championship might not change the regional rankings even though that should be the number one reason for a school to beat out another school in the rankings. Mesa will take on St. Edwards on Thursday in a double elimination tournament. The winner goes to the Division 2 World Series in Grand Prairie, Texas.
What do you think of the fact that, despite winning the conference championship, Colorado Mesa University has to travel for the regional?
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