Colorado Mesa recovered from a second-round setback in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference on Thursday to win three straight games, highlighted by a 20-11 slugfest with Colorado Mines in Saturday’s championship game. COLORADO MESA WEB ARTICLE / BOX SCORE / COLORADO MINES WEB ARTICLE
The Saturday’s Mines win earned the Mavericks their fourth straight RMAC baseball postseason championship (24th overall) and the league’s automatic berth into next week’s NCAA Division II Championships, where the Grand Junction crew is expected to host an opening round pod at The Diamond at Hamilton Ballpark. RMAC WEB ARTICLE
The national championship bracket will be announced on Sunday at 8 p.m. via a live stream on NCAA.com. The 56-team field will feature 21 automatic qualifiers and 35 at-large bids. Competition concludes on June 6 at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, N.C. READ MORE
After opening the double-elimination tournament with a 12-10 victory over Regis on Thursday, Colorado Mesa (49-5) dropped a 9-8 decision in 10 innings to Colorado State Pueblo on Thursday.
The Mavericks regrouped on Friday, defeating UCCS 11-4 and MSU Denver 10-2 to earn a spot in Saturday’s finale, where they awaited the winner of the Colorado Mines-MSU Denver game earlier in the day.
Colorado Mines (21-33), which lost its opening game 19-6 on Wednesday to MSU Denver, came back through the consolation bracket to eliminate Regis 19-17 on Thursday, CSU Pueblo 13-1 on Friday, and MSU Denver 13-11 earlier Saturday.
Colorado Mesa, which has won 14 straight RMAC regular-season titles and 29 overall, will make its 17th straight appearance in the NCAAs and its 25th overall. The Mavericks have reached the Division II World Series four times, highlighted by second-place finishes in 2014 and 2019, a third-place finish in 2017, and an Elite Eight finish in 2009.
