DENVER – Maybe Colorado Mesa isn't quite the powerhouse it was last season.
 
Maybe.
 
Not that it matters. The Mavericks are still really, really good.
 
Colorado Mesa (16-6 overall, 9-3 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) comes to the Regency Athletic Complex for a four-game softball series against MSU Denver this weekend, with doubleheaders set for noon Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday.
 
The Mavericks are ranked No. 17 nationally in Division II.
 
Last year they went 48-5 overall, including 33-3 in RMAC play. They led all of college softball with a .398 batting average, which was the best by any Division II team since 2009. The Mavericks were hosts for the Division II South Central Regional tournament, but went 1-2 in the double-elimination event to come up short of reaching the eight-team Division II World Series.
 
Like West Texas A&M on Tuesday, which moved up to No. 8 nationally after sweeping the Roardrunners, Colorado Mesa is another team that has a legitimate chance to be back at the Regency Athletic Complex for this season's World Series from May 23 through 27.
 
"This is another quality opponent, another top-25 team, another team that is definitely driven by offense," MSU Denver coach Annie Van Wetzinga said. "We'll need solid pitching and defense, and then we'll have to put quality at-bats together to put pressure on them as well."
 
At 9-3 in league play, Colorado Mesa is percentage points behind Colorado Christian (8-2) for first place in the RMAC. One of Colorado Christian's two losses came in a doubleheader split with MSU Denver (11-13, 7-3). The Roadrunners are in fourth place in the league, a half-game behind the third-place place University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (8-3), and percentage points ahead of Dixie State (8-4). Regis and Colorado School of Mines are both 6-3, leaving seven teams within 1 1/2 games of first place.
 
Despite its strong season last year, Colorado Mesa was picked to finish second in the league this year behind newcomer Dixie State. But the Mavericks took three of four from the Trailblazers two weeks ago in an early showdown.
 
Mesa put four players on the preseason All-RMAC first team, including preseason pitcher of the year Kimbri Herring, who is 6-3, with a 2.68 ERA and an 0.96 WHIP.
 
First baseman AnnMarie Torres leads the RMAC and is fifth nationally among players with at least 34 at-bats with a .541 batting average, and she has six homers while ranking in a fifth-place tie nationally with 31 RBIs.
 
The Mavericks are batting .349 as team and have a team ERA of 2.72.
While MSU Denver had its moments against West Texas A&M, particularly in the first game, which was tied 1-1 after four innings, both of those games were ended early due to the eight-run rule. And, in Sunday losses to UCCS and New Mexico Highlands, the Roadrunners weren't sharp. They had been in first place in the league at 7-1 prior to that.
 
"The biggest thing we should take from (this week) is that if we don't play sharp softball, if we can't string hits together and have some solid offense, then it can get ugly pretty quickly," Van Wetzinga said. "If you want to look at Sunday, or if you want to look at Tuesday, if you don't show up, you're going to get beat – whether it's by a little or a lot depends on the opponent."