SERIES AT A GLANCE
Colorado Mesa and Dixie State will renew their rivalry this weekend in the final meeting between the two schools before they will become Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference foes in 2019. The Mavericks have a 21-14 lead in the all-time series with the Trailblazers and took three of the four games a year ago in St. George.

Dixie State will come into the weekend with a .320 team batting average and a .458 slugging percentage. Gabe Taylor is the team leader with a .500 batting average (11-for-22) through the first six games of the season. Logan Porter provides the pop in the Trailblazer lineup with four doubles and a home run with a .700 slugging percentage.

The Trailblazers, like the Mavericks, didnt have as much success on the mound as they would have liked in their opening weekend. Matt Mosca has the lowest ERA amongst the starters with a 1.69 ERA and could slide into one of the starting spots this weekend. Vernal, Utah's Jayden Murray has the Trailblazers best numbers this season with eight strikeouts and allowing just two hits.

LAST WEEKEND
Colorado Mesa opened the season with a weekend split of each team they played in #7 UC-San Diego and Concordia-Irvine of the PacWest. The Mavericks defeated the Tritons in the season opener 11-1 and fell 12-3 in the weekend finale while they dropped the first game against Concordia 6-4 before defeating the Eagles 9-8 in 10 innings on Saturday.
 
RIVALRY RENEWED
The Mavericks will host Dixie State in a four-game series at Suplizio Field as a part of Leadoff Weekend. Colorado Mesa took three of the four games a year ago at Bruce Hurst Field in St. George and now own a 21-14 all-time series lead. The two teams will continue to see a lot more of each other in the years to come as the Trailblazers will join the RMAC for the 2019 season.

RMAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Colorado Mesa's Keenan Eaton was awarded the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Player of the Week after his performance during the opening weekend. Eaton batted .563 with an OPS over 1.500 during the four games in La Jolla. The Parker native hit three doubles and a home run with five runs driven in.

HOT STARTS
Along with Keenan Eaton, Garrett Ball and JJ Carr each had great starts to the season. Ball batted .438 with three runs scored and two runs driven in, splitting time between third base and the DH slot. Carr batted .474 with nine hits four runs scored and five runs batted in, going between second base and third base. 

THE STAFF
Colorado Mesa will more than likely keep the rotation similar this weekend but could see one change. Reagan Todd could slide into one of the spots in the rotation after pitching 4.2 innings of relief allowing just one run on four hits, walked one and struck out six. Junior AJ Landis had maybe his best outing as a Maverick in relief last weekend allowing just two hits and six strikeouts in 3.1 innings.

50
The Mavericks set a program record a year ago by going 50-12 during the 2017 campaign. The 50 wins was a program first and ending up leading the nation in wins. The 50th win may not have come against a grander opponent in top ranked Delta State in the NCAA Division II World Series.

NATIONAL RANKINGS
The Mavericks are ranked in the top five in all of the major publications. They are ranked No. 4 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, No. 5 by amateur baseball website Perfect Game, and No. 3 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association. D2Baseballnews.com has yet to release their preseason poll.

THE SKIPPER
Head coach Chris Hanks enters his 20th season guiding the Mavericks and has an impressive 790-330 record, most in program history. In 2017, he guided the Mavericks to their third NCAA Division II World Series and their ninth straight NCAA Tournament. The feat earned him ABCA South Central Region Coach of the year, an honor he has earned three times now.

UP NEXT
Colorado Mesa will head back out on the road to California to take on the Cal Baptist Lancers in a four-game series in Riverside at Totman Stadium. The Lancers are playing their final season as a Division II institution as they will be moving to Division I and the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).