2024 RMAC Baseball Tournament Central
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Postseason play at The Diamond at the Bus Bergman Sports Complex gets underway on Wednesday, May 8, with the 2024 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament from Grand Junction, Colo. The tournament is formatted as a double-elimination bracket that will conclude on Saturday, May 11, and award the RMAC’s automatic qualifier into the 2024 NCAA Division II Baseball Championship.
Colorado Mesa hosts the six-team event once again after wrapping up an outright regular season title. The Mavericks were crowned atop the conference for the 12
th year in a row, the second most consecutive titles in RMAC history. CMU awaits potential back-to-back tournament championships for the first time since they completed a three-peat from 2017-19. Colorado Mesa boasts the league’s highest scoring offense, most home runs and rides hot bats into the tournament after scoring 86 runs this past weekend. The Mavericks are also attempting to reach their 11
th straight tournament championship game in this year’s edition.
Second-seeded Regis heads into the tournament hoping to reach the title game again, falling to the Mavericks in 2023. The Rangers hold the RMAC’s best on-base percentage and will be aggressive on the basepaths in Grand Junction, after stealing 99 bases so far in 2024. In close games, Regis will hold a significant pitching edge, claiming the league’s most saves and strikeouts and being tied for second as a team in fielding percentage.
Colorado School of Mines earned the No. 3 seed after a 20-12 record in conference play. The Orediggers have the best pitching staff in the RMAC and are the only league team to allow less than 300 earned runs this season. Senior Luke Folsom leads Mines’ charge on the mound with a 5.34 ERA and 3.33 walks-to-strikeouts ratio, while Jackson Bakovich is second in the RMAC with seven wins.
The four seed, Adams State, gets prepped for an exciting tournament after a historic end to the regular season. The Grizzlies took two wins from the Mavericks in the final conference series, a first in program history, and set a new school record for wins in a season. Adams State is back in the RMAC Tournament after an eight-year absence, holding the league’s best batting average. Led by third baseman Mike Bathauer’s .432 batting average, the third baseman’s 82 hits and 74 RBIs are just second to CMU’s Rob Sharrar.
Metropolitan State University of Denver is the five-seed due to tiebreaker procedures but comes into the tournament with a 19-13 RMAC record. The Roadrunners look to turn some heads and claim the automatic bid as junior Dutchman Jesse Velders leads the league in batting average and on-base percentage and ranks among the top ten in every other hitting statistic. Senior Zach Schuler complements Velders’ lightning with his thunderous damage as the RMAC’s home run leader (20), third in RBIs (71) and slugging percentage (.822). The Roadrunners last reached the league’s mountaintop in 2022, knocking off the Mavs, and will try to create a storm big enough to do it again.
The tournament field is rounded out by Colorado State University Pueblo, checking in as the sixth seed. Tyler Curtis’ 5.28 ERA, nine wins and 75 innings pitched rank as the best in the league and will steer the Pack to success. At the plate, the ThunderWolves’ offensive attack is spearheaded by Christian Castaneda, Elijah Borjas and Kade Snodgrass. Castaneda and Borjas set the table for the Pack with double-digit home run totals, while Snodgrass keeps things going with a 1.017 OPS and 38 RBIs.
All six teams will play on the first day of action in Grand Junction, with the fourth-seeded Grizzlies and the third-seeded Orediggers kicking things off at 11 a.m. MT. The Mavericks and ThunderWolves will play in game two, set for a 3 p.m. first pitch. Wednesday’s play concludes with the nightcap between No. 5 MSU Denver and No. 2 Regis at 7 p.m. at the Diamond.
Every game from Wednesday to Saturday will be available live on the RMAC Network. Day passes are $9.95 per day, while the entire tournament can be viewed for one purchase of $30.
Ticket information, live stats, the tournament bracket, tournament merchandise and other information is available on the 2024 RMAC Baseball Tournament page, seen
here.