March 23, 2007
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Junior Bobby LaFromboise rebounded from last weekend’s loss with an 8.0 inning performance, leading New Mexico to a 9-1 win in the team’s Mountain West Conference opener. The win, which improves the Lobos to 12-15 overall, was head coach Rich Alday’s 1000th game at UNM and his 499th win.
LaFromboise had some help earning the win as freshman Derek Pilkington went 3-for-5 with three RBI while junior Ian Hollick was 2-for-5 with two RBI and senior Daniel Stovall was 2-for-2 with three walks.
The Lobos scored their first run of the game in the third inning, before they recorded a hit. Utah starter Lucas Trinnaman walked two batters and hit one, setting up junior Matt Hibbitts RBI-grounder to short. Hollick singled up the middle, driving in junior Jordan Pacheco and Pilkington capped the inning with a RBI-single that plated Hibbitts.
Junior Drew McDonald extended New Mexico’s lead in the sixth, leading off with a single and scoring on an error. Senior Jay Russell also scored on a single to right by Stovall, putting the Lobos up 5-0 after six.
LaFromboise, who had allowed just two hits through the first six innings, surrendered his first home run of the season as Utah’s Jay Brossman hit a bomb to left field for the team’s lone run of the game. For the game, he allowed just four hits, struck out six and didn’t walk a single batter.
Alday goes for his 500th win tomorrow at 6 p.m. when the two programs continue the three-game series at Isotopes Park. Right-handed junior Stephen Smith (2-4, 7.58 ERA) is slated to face Utah’s left-handed Eric King (2-1, 2.43 ERA).