LAKEWOOD, CO- The Cougars knew they needed just one win to claim the RMAC Tournament Title on Saturday as they took on the two-seed Colorado Mesa. The Cougars took care of business led by dominant pitching and a massive fifth inning to claim their third tournament title in four years. 

Elyse McMullin took on the Mavericks' Preslee Christensen in what looked like a pitchers duel early on. After two scoreless innings, the Cougars used some luck as an error allowed Cheyenne Stark to reach and she eventually came around to score after advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a sac fly from McMullin. 

Leading 1-0, the Cougars sent in Hanna Espinoza to start the fifth inning, and the sophomore continued what McMullin started as she shut down the dangerous Mavericks offense. With the score still at 1-0 heading to the bottom of the fifth, CCU went to work with three quick singles as Christensen exited after an unfortunate liner off the leg. McMullin continued to show why she is the RMAC Player of the Year, slapping a two-run single with the bases loaded to make it 3-0. 

Peyton Marvel raced home after a passed ball got away from the Mavericks' catcher, and Danae Lopez singled in another run as the lead ballooned to 5-0. One more passed ball allowed Lopez to race home as CCU went up 6-0 after a huge inning. 

Espinoza faced just three batters in the sixth, sandwiching a strikeout between a pair of flyouts. She went right back to work in the seventh, getting two quick outs on a popup and groundout to Marvel at shortstop. One out away from the tournament title, Hanna froze the final CMU batter, striking her out looking to seal the victory as the Cougars poured onto the field to celebrate the 6-0 victory. 

McMullin and Espinoza combined to allow just two hits in the shutout of the Mavericks. McMullin helped herself out as she claimed the win after throwing four innings and tallying three RBI. 

The number one-seeded host of the tournament showed they were every bit deserving, rolling through three games in the tournament as they claimed their third RMAC crown in the last four years. It was the fifth consecutive year that Colorado Christian appeared in the championship game. McMullin was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, and Espinoza, Camryn Quilling and Sarah Dollerschell all earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team for their efforts. 

With a spot in the NCAA South Central Regional clinched, the Cougars will await their seeding and where they will be playing as the locations and teams participating will be announced on NCAA.com on Monday May 5 at 8 a.m. MST. The regional tournament will take place May 8-10 and will likely be in either Canyon or Tyler, Texas.