Chris Hanks and the Mavericks were one hit away.
It was the 2014 Division II national title game, and Colorado Mesa was locked in an extra-innings battle with Southern Indiana in Cary, North Carolina. CMU, the home team, got runners in scoring position in the 10th and 11th innings but couldn’t cash in, and then stranded the tying run at third in the 12th in
Mesa lost in the national title game again in 2019, falling 3-1 to the University of Tampa. Those two games were the closest the Mavericks — who have made 22 NCAA Tournament appearances and four College World Series in Hanks’ 28-year tenure — have gotten to the pinnacle of Division II.
But as Mesa looks capable of another title run this season, Hanks explains he’s looking through the windshield, not the rearview.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t ruminate on (the national title losses) a little bit, but it’s softened over the years,” Hanks said. “And I’ve let go. Winning a national title, that has to be a result of hard work and good timing and good fortune. I found that if you focus on that too much, you do ruminate, you do obsess, you do want it too bad.
“Getting there again and winning it, that drives me, but I refuse to let it define our program or my career or our coaching staff’s career. We’ve got to focus on some things we have a little more control over.”
The Mavericks are ranked No. 1 in Division II by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. At 45-4, they have won 27 of the last 28 games, and finished 31-1 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play to clinch their 19th RMAC title under Hanks. Mesa split a four-game series to start the season against Cal Poly Pomona, including a 5-1 loss in the opener, but has been defeated just two times since.
“Always gaining inches”
Hanks’ mindset from championship-obsessed to putting in the work, playing hard and letting the baseball gods take care of the rest began to shift in 2020. That was when a loaded Mesa roster, featuring many of the same players who carried the program to the national title game the year before, didn’t get the chance to fulfill their potential after the season was canceled 18 games in because of the COVID pandemic.
Since that shortened 2020 campaign — and in the couple of seasons that followed where talented Mavericks squads failed to make it back to the College World Series — Hanks is OK with letting the chips fall where they may.
“One thing that he’s talked about a lot this year is always gaining inches,” explained senior southpaw , the team’s No. 1 starter. “That just means every day you’re at the field, whether it’s for practice or a game, doing the little things to make yourself better. The team this year has really taken that to heart.”
With the RMAC tournament on the horizon this week and the start of the NCAA tournament looming next week, a new program record for wins (53 in 2019) is within reach. This year’s team isn’t as dynamic offensively as the national runner-ups of 2014 and ’19, but the know how to win close games (nine wins by three runs or less) and possess better defense and deeper pitching than those other two teams.
“The pitching and defense has been the biggest difference, then along with hitters who don’t strike out very much and walk a lot,” Hanks said. “Our on-base percentage is really good (at .468, fifth in Division II). But the biggest thing is this team is steady, and even-keeled.”
Beyond Ruter, a Faith Christian graduate, Mesa’s rotation also features junior right-hander Rafael Espinoza, freshman right-hander Jackson Eisenhauer and freshman right-hander Simon Lunsford (Green Mountain). And in the bullpen, senior right-hander Sage Ferguson (Elizabeth), redshirt freshman right-hander Jett Walker, senior right-hander Cayden Clark and junior right-hander Gabe Jacobs (Ponderosa) give the Mavericks plenty of options.
“We’re deep with power arms, and we have some really effective finesse guys,” Hanks said. “So there’s a lot of different looks we can give people. We have 16 kids that are over 90, including five that are in the 93 to 96 range.”
also features intriguing storylines. Senior right fielder Kolby Felix is the team’s leading hitter, with a .430 average, 14 homers, 20 steals and an .824 slugging. Plus, the Mavericks have Vin Scully’s step-grandson (third baseman ) and a player who spent three years in the Phillies organization before being released and coming to Mesa (outfielder ).
“True to our roots”
What the team doesn’t have is a wave of transfers.
In the new era of college athletics with the transfer portal and Name, Image and Likeness deals, the Mavericks get players out of the portal very sparingly. Mesa, which has lost some top players to the portal over the past few years, has only a few Division I transfer portal players among the 46 guys on its roster.
That is despite Mesa losing 25 players to graduation last year. And NIL remains a nonfactor for Mesa, as it is for the majority of Division II baseball programs.
“We’re staying true to our roots, which is high school-based recruiting, and then secondarily would be junior college transfers,” Hanks said. “We really reserve the portal for immediate needs. So there’s some purity to it still, and I think it’s the way (program-building) should be.”
Felix, who could potentially be drafted this summer, says the culture that Hanks has built in his decades in Grand Junction is why many of the Mavericks’ best players stay for their entire college tenure instead of jumping to Division I, where the norm has become high annual roster turnover.
Mesa currently has two players in the majors, pitchers Andrew Morris (Twins) and Kyle Leahy (Cardinals), and has put , the most notable of which was longtime Giants reliever and three-time World Series champion Sergio Romo.
“I believe Hanks and this coaching staff can progress you to a level that can surpass what many Division I schools can do for you,” Felix said. “For a D2 school, we’ve put a lot of players in pro ball, so the track record of that and consistent team success speaks for itself.”
Whether Hanks, 57, can finally achieve the final piece of his illustrious coaching resume this season remains to be seen. But the 1993 Mesa graduate who was MVP of the 1988 JuCo World Series with College of Southern Idaho isn’t going anywhere. And if the retirement timeline set forth by his wife, Nikki, is accurate, Hanks is going to have many more cracks at getting that elusive ring.
“My wife has always said, ‘You’ve got to coach until you’re 70 because I don’t think I can have you around the house that much,'” Hanks said with a laugh. “And then, when she found out Nick Saban retired at 72, she goes, ‘Well, hell, he went until he was 72 and that was big-time SEC football. Can you imagine the pressure there? If he can go to 72, you can go that long, too.'”
