LAS VEGAS, N.M. ---Â The New Mexico Highlands baseball team looks to build off splitting on the road against Colorado Christian as the Cowboys hit the road again this week against No. 8 Colorado Mesa for a four-game series starting Thursday.
While splitting on the road last week for the Cowboys was their best effort on the road in three RMAC series away from Las Vegas, NMHU actually had a chance to sweep - but dropped a pair of games in walk-off fashion (a weekend after winning three games via walk-offs at home against Regis). Still, the Cowboys came away with a pair of wins and have won five of their last eight RMAC contests.
Joe Cilladi and
Carlos Ramirez paced the Cowboys over the four-game series with Cilladi hitting .429 (6-for-14) with four runs, an RBI, three walks and three stolen base while not making an error at second base in 17 chances. Ramirez hit .357 (5-for-14) with a pair of home runs, five RBI and four runs.
On the mound last weekend the Cowboys got strong starts from
Kaleb Whitlock (six innings, two runs, six hits, two strikeouts) and JT Mossberg (seven innings, three earned runs, nine hits, one strikeout) while getting scoreless relief from
Jacob Padilla (two innings),
Carl Shonrock (no earned runs allowed in two innings) and
Ricardo Santillan (1.2 innings).
On the season,
Auggie Francis continues to lead the team in hitting at .413 to go along with nine home runs, eight doubles, six triples, 29 RBI, 53 runs (which ranks sixth in the nation and first in the RMAC) and 15 stolen bases.
The Mavs - who were at one point the top-ranked team in the nation - come into the series having swept Adams State in a four-game set by a combined score of 42-7 - including a pair of shutouts. CMU enters the weekend No. 2 in the conference and in the top 40 in the country in batting average (.330 - 12th), runs per game (8.6 - 11th) and ERA (4.10 - 38th).
On the mound the Mavs are led by one of the top pitchers statistically in the country in Garrett Hutson. The right-hander is 7-0 with 1.66 ERA with five complete games, 36 hits allowed (teams are hitting .183 against him), 66 strikeouts and just 10 walks in 54.1 innings of work (which includes two shutouts). JR McDermott isn't far behind as he's 6-0 this season with a 2.25 ERA with 50 strikeouts, 47 hits allowed and 10 walks in 51.2 innings.
At the plate the Mavs are led by Dominic DeMarco as he's hitting .373 with six homers, nine doubles, 30 RBI and 33 runs while Jordan Stubbings (.352, 4 HR, 13 2B, 28 RBI) and Douglas Hunter (.352, team-high 8 HR, 7 2B, 27 RBI) are also hitting above .350.
The Cowboys split a doubleheader with CMU last season in Las Vegas.
