Athlete of the Week: Haydn McGeary and CMU Baseball

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - Colorado Mesa University is a baseball juggernaut, but they’ve never won a national championship. CMU lost a heartbreaker in the title game three years ago. Now that same group is older, more experienced, and way more dangerous.

Haydn McGeary leads the Mavericks in every major hitting category. He’s only a junior, but McGeary already has the most home runs in school history.

“He’s a guy that everybody in the conference is afraid of,” says head coach Chris Hanks. “He was National Player of the Year last year, and it really comes down to some of the other guys being able to protect him.”

The Maverick’s offense did just that over the weekend, scoring 78 total runs in a four-game sweep at New Mexico Highlands. Spencer Bramwell hit five home runs, three of them in the series opener. Right when CMU got back home, Bramwell was named the Academic Player of the Year at the Rocky Mountain Conference.

“It’s a tremendous honor,” Bramwell told us. “It shows the hard work I put in on and off the field...I had a pretty good weekend.”

He’s the Maverick’s primary catcher, but all three of their best hitters can play behind the plate. Catcher is usually considered the weakest offensive position in baseball, but not for CMU. Bramwell, McGeary, and Caleb Farmer all give the team incredible depth.

“One thing that happens to catchers if you over-catch them is their offense tends to tail off,” said Coach Hanks. “We’ve caught Bramwell the most, Farmer’s been catching a lot, and we’re gonna probably start inserting McGeary a little bit more to really try and keep all of them a little bit fresh.”

The Mavericks have just two series left in the season - this weekend at Colorado Christian University, and next weekend back home against Colorado State University Pueblo. The conference tournament starts May 11th, right here in Grand Junction.

“We’re a dangerous team,” McGeary says. “When everybody’s hitting we’re pretty scary to face. It was nice to see everybody find their swings last weekend, and hopefully we can carry that on through the middle of June.”

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