May 19, 2005
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The New Mexico baseball team slugged a season-high five homers, including four in the eighth inning, to defeat Air Force, 15-9, Thursday afternoon at Falcon Field.
With the game tied at 4 heading into the top of the eighth, the Lobos (24-29, 14-14 Mountain West) responded with three consecutive solo homers off the bats of Garrick Haymore, Chris Carlson and Daniel Stovall to put UNM up 7-4. After a walk to Ian Hollick, Chris Dabbs hit the fourth homer of the inning with a blast to left field to make it 9-4.
Air Force bounced back with three runs in the eighth off reliever Petr Pacas, including a two-run pinch-hit dinger by Brent Tittle, to cut the Lobo lead to 9-7.
The Lobos added six more runs in the ninth to put the Falcons (8-41, 3-25 MWC) away. Jeff Grady hit a three-run homer to left-center, his career-best 13th of the year, while Stovall also collected a run-scoring hit. Grady went 2-for-4 with four RBI and Stovall went 2-for-5 with three RBI and two runs.
Air Force scored two in the ninth to make it 15-9, but right-hander reliever Jesse Perez came on and struck out the final two batters of the game to preserve the win.
Senior right-hander Karsten Gaarder (3-7), the reigning Mountain West Pitcher of the Week, struck out 12 batters and gave up four runs in seven innings to earn the win for UNM.
The Lobos and Falcons each collected 14 hits in the contest. Chris Carlson, who hit his 14th homer of the season with a solo shot in the eighth, tallied three hits and two runs for UNM. Dale Kasel went 3-for-3 with three runs and a homer for Air Force.
New Mexico scored the first two runs of the game on a error by Falcon third baseman Nathan DeRohan in the third. Air Force notched single runs in the third and fourth to tie the game at 2 heading into the fifth.
Stovall hit an RBI groundout in the sixth to give UNM a 3-2 advantage, but the Falcons plated two in the bottom half of the inning on a Karl Bolt solo homer and bases-loaded walk to Reid Lamson to take a 4-3 lead.
The Lobos tied the game at 4 on a Jeff Grady RBI single in the top of the seventh.
The two teams will meet for the second game of the series Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. Live stats will be available at www.AirForceSports.com.
GAME NOTES: Freshman second baseman Jordan Pacheco did not play on Thursday and is expected to miss the remaining two games in the series. He is still recovering after getting hit by a pitch in the face at Texas Tech on Monday, May 16. He is expected to return for the Mountain West Tournament next weekend in Salt Lake City.