Colorado Mesa University baseball coach Chris Hanks was a tad bit worried about his team before Saturday\u2019s South Central regional final against St. Mary\u2019s (Texas).<\/p>\n
Turns out, Hanks had nothing to be concerned about.<\/p>\n
The NCAA Division II No. 1-ranked Mavericks dominated from the start, rolling to a 15-5 victory over St. Mary\u2019s at The Diamond at Hamilton Ballpark.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were very disciplined today,\u201d Hanks said. \u201cWe were very focused. I try to read my team. They were not real loose. I was a little bit worried, but they were super focused.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colorado Mesa (52-5) advanced to the NCAA Division II South Central Super Regional next weekend. The Mavericks will host No. 2 seed Texas-Tyler beginning on Thursday. The winner of next weekend\u2019s best-of-three game series advances to the NCAA Division II World Series.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis teams really loves each other,\u201d Hanks said. \u201cThey care about each other. They play hard for each other. They are a very hard-working team. They are very dependable. I\u2019ve told them, I\u2019ve had arguably my most fun coaching year ever just being around them day in and day out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have good players. We have good people. It\u2019s a blessing. I\u2019m grateful. It\u2019s so fun because they work hard and most importantly, they took over control of their own team. The leadership aspect and the accountability. We have a saying in our program, we put our standards over our feelings. They\u2019ve lived that. I\u2019m super proud of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mavericks are making their third appearance in the Super Regional since it was added to the NCAA Tournament and first since 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been searching to get back to this spot and give us a chance to get us to the end, which is (the World Series in) Cary (N.C.),\u201d Mesa senior Rocco DiFrancesco said. \u201cLast year we fell short. This team has what it takes to get there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been an all-season thing. I think we play together well. Everyone\u2019s bought in. Everyone is selfless. No one plays for stats or any of that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mesa is looking for its fifth World Series appearance in program history and first national title.<\/p>\n
Senior Cameron Cartwright, who was 4 for 5 with three RBI, said the Mavericks have been focused since their first loss at home this season last week in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it definitely did (get the Mavs focused),\u201d Cartwright said. \u201cIt was a good learning point for us. It opened our eyes. We came back, regrouped, fixed what we needed to fix, and started playing more as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mesa wore out St. Mary\u2019s pitching, drawing seven walks, compiling 19 hits, including four extra-base hits. St. Mary\u2019s went through seven pitchers.<\/p>\n
The Mavericks, who needed to rally to defeat Lubbock Christian on Thursday, led from start to finish Saturday.<\/p>\n
Mesa quickly built a 3-0 lead in the first inning on a bases-loaded walk and DiFrancesco\u2019s two out single to right-center field.<\/p>\n
Landon Nunes and Trevor Tse each drove in a run on sacrifice flies in the second then Cartwright delivered a two-out, two-run home run into the parking lot for a 7-0 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a pitching chart of what pitches they throw in each count,\u201d Cartwright said. \u201cThey only threw one first-pitch off-speed pitch. I got the pitch I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Mary\u2019s pushed one run across on a double steal and errant pickoff attempt, but Mesa wasn\u2019t fazed, picking up where it left off in the fourth, scoring five times for a 12-1 lead. Cartwright, Kennedy Hara, and DiFrancesco each knocked in a run, then Tate Blasi hit a laser down the first-base line for a two-run triple.<\/p>\n
That was more than enough for senior left-hander Caleb Ruter (7-0), who limited the Rattlers to one earned run on three hits, four walks and five strikeouts in six innings of work. Ruter didn\u2019t allow a hit until the fourth inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of good starters, a lot of guys that can do the job,\u201d Ruter said. \u201cMy mentality was just to fill up the strike zone and have command of my breaking pitches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson Lapiner, who was 5 for 6, hit a three-run home run to the softball field in the seventh for a 15-2 lead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colorado Mesa University baseball coach Chris Hanks was a tad bit worried about his team before Saturday\u2019s South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[2315,2309,5,2316,2314,2313,2325,2330,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,19560,2307,3649,2513,2320,2321,185,2324,2560,2311,2312],"class_list":["post-701144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-athletic-sports","tag-ball-and-bat-games","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-competitions","tag-baseball-finals","tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","tag-baseball-teams","tag-glossary-of-baseball-terms","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","tag-major-league-baseball-teams","tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-ncaa-division-i-baseball-tournament","tag-outdoor-sports","tag-pickoff","tag-pitch-baseball","tag-pitcher","tag-seasons-in-baseball","tag-sports","tag-sports-events","tag-stolen-base","tag-team-sports","tag-turf-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}