Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa once again finished on top of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Baseball mountaintop, taking down Regis 11-1 in the 2024 tournament championship on Saturday, May 11. The Mavericks used a four-run fourth to take the lead and never looked back over the contest to secure their second straight tournament title and the 22^nd overall in program history.
 
#1 Colorado Mesa 11, #2 Regis 1
In a rematch of Friday’s semifinal, the matchup started eerily similar. Both starters threw zeroes on the board, up to the third inning. Regis scored the game’s first run, as they did on Friday, on a Levi Padilla RBI single. The early advantage did not last very long. Colorado Mesa loaded the bases in the bottom half, the first of four innings in which they had Mavericks on every base. One walk and two hit batters with the bases occupied surged Mesa to a 4-1 lead by the top of the fourth. That big inning was all reliever Evan Bunevich needed. The junior was nails out of the bullpen, tossing 5.1 innings of scoreless baseball and two strikeouts. His outing silenced a Rangers lineup that scored 40 runs in the four tournament games prior to Saturday.
 
The Mavericks added two in the fourth, three in the seventh and two in the eighth to lock down the tournament title. Freshman Joey Blank made the most of his only tournament game, going 3-for-5 from the two-hole. The usual suspects of Paul Schoenfeld and Rob Sharrar did their jobs, but it was infielder Jonathan Gonzalez who added a hit to his impressive tournament resume. Gonzalez hit .600 (9-for-15) over the four days and earned the 2024 Most Valuable Player honors.
 
Schoenfeld and Sharrar were selected to the All-Tournament Team and were joined by pitchers Liam Hohenstein and Cole Seward. Padila represented Regis, along with Zach Barnao and Wyatt Zdisisin. Colorado School of Mines two-way player Luke Folsom and Colorado State University Pueblo reliever Jacob Petersheim were chosen by media personnel to round out the 10-member squad.
 
The Mavericks secured the league’s automatic bid and will await their placement in the 2024 NCAA Division II Baseball Championship bracket, with the selection show on Sunday, May 12 at 8:30 p.m. MT. The Rangers, along with the rest of the RMAC, will await their postseason fate on Sunday as well.

2024 RMAC Baseball All-Tournament Team
Liam Hohenstein, Colorado Mesa
Paul Schoenfeld, Colorado Mesa
Cole Seward, Colorado Mesa
Rob Sharrar, Colorado Mesa
Luke Folsom, Colorado School of Mines
Jacob Petersheim, CSU Pueblo
Zach Barnao, Regis
Levi Padilla, Regis
Wyatt Zdisisin, Regis
Tournament MVP: Jonathon Gonzalez, Colorado Mesa