March 4, 2005
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Freshman third baseman Ian Hollick went 4-for-4, hit his first career homer and played stellar defense in leading the New Mexico baseball team past Northern Colorado, 11-6, Friday night at Isotopes Park. The win snaps a four-game slide for the Lobos and improves them to 5-8 for the year, while UNC falls to 1-9. The Lobos and Bears will play a doubleheader tomorrow (two nine-inning games) beginning at 11 a.m. — there will be no game on Sunday.
Jason Fernandez (3-2) had another strong outing on the mound, striking out nine in earning his team-best third victory of the season. Fernandez allowed eight hits and six runs in 6.2 innings of action.
He left the game in the top of the seventh with a 7-6 lead and a runner on second base with two outs. Senior Javier Lopez came on to get Jarrod Chacon out on a groundout to end the inning. The Bears scored three times in the inning to cut the Lobo lead to one run.
Lopez pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth to earn his second save and preserve the win for Fernandez.
The Lobos jumped on Bear starter Angelo Telitz (0-3) for six runs and six hits in the first three innings. Chris Calson belted an RBI triple in the first, followed by RBI singles off the bats of Daniel Stovall and Hollick. Carlson added a run-scoring single in the second.
Tim Grady, making his first start of the season, drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the third, giving the Lobos a 6-0 advantage.
The Bears scored twice in the fifth and once in the sixth to make it 6-3, but Hollick delivered his first career homer in the bottom of the sixth to put UNM back up, 7-3.
Northern Colorado made it close with three in the seventh, keyed by a Zach Brockman two-run shot to left, but Lopez got out of the jam and the Bears never threatened again.
New Mexico scored four insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth to take a commanding 11-6 lead. Ryan Barba nailed a two-run double to left-center, and Jordan Pacheco also hit a two-run double to left one batter later, scoring Barba and Matt Foote. Foote went 3-for-4 with three runs in the game while Pacheco went 2-for-5.