Late Lobo Rally Comes Up Short to NMSU
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— A Keyannah Chavez home run to left in the sixth inning tied the game at two and the Lobos rallied to plate a run and put two runners in scoring position in the bottom of the seventh, but the runners were left stranded in the 4-3 final to New Mexico State Tuesday afternoon.
The Aggies opened the scoring in the top of the first on a single to center that brought in the runner from second, however, the relay in from DeNae Vasquez-Dickson to Rachael Hathoot at second as the Aggie tried to stretch for two recorded the third out.
UNM’s defense kept it 1-0 in the top of the second, working around a leadoff fielding error and sac bunt that moved a runner in to scoring position on a fielder’s choice in which Hathoot flipped the ball to Sydney Carithers at third to get the runner for the second out. Chloe Yeatts threw out her sixth runner of the season for the third out on the next at-bat.
The Lobos again got out of the inning unscathed in the third after the Aggies used three walks to load the bases, with the Lobos evading any damage on a grounder back to Amber Linton in the circle for the third out, with both teams held scoreless until the sixth.
A pair of errors scored NMSU’s second run before a grounder to second and swinging strikeout for Linton ended the sixth, although the Lobos tied the game on one swing in the home half of the inning.
Hathoot led off with a single down the left field line to extend her on-base streak to 24 games and her hit streak to six games, and after Vasquez-Dickson executed a sac bunt (her team-high 13th of the season) to move her over, Chavez sent the 1-2 pitch over the wall in left for the fifth home run of her sophomore season to even the score at two.
Heading to the seventh tied at two, the bats picked up for both teams with NMSU having its first two batters reach before a double to right field cleared the bases. After the Lobos went to the bullpen to bring in Brooke Umali for Linton, the freshman left hander retired the next three batters, which included a sensational play by Chavez in left with the Lobo running into the wall to make the grab for the third out.
Emma Bramson led off with an infield single and Elizabeth Baylor followed that up on the next at-bat with a double to right to put the tying run in scoring position. Carithers scored Bramson on another infield single to make it a one-run game, and a Hathoot grounder to first moved Carithers over to again put two runners in scoring position. However, a grounder to second ended the game with two left on.
UNM finished with eight hits in the contest, led by two each from Chavez and Katherine Brunner, while Chavez also led with two RBI and Carithers accounted for the other.
The Lobos utilized three pitchers with Emily Brouse getting the ball to start, going 2.1 innings and facing nine Aggies with one hit and one run allowed before Linton entered in the third and faced 21 in 3.2 innings. Linton added three strikeouts to her season total before Umali pitched the remaining 1.0 inning, retiring all three batters she faced.
UNM resumes MW play at home against Utah State in a three-game series starting Friday evening at 6 p.m. Friday’s game will be the Lobos Love Pink game.