March 31, 2007
Box Score
Alday On His Milestone Win
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The Lobo baseball team won its fourth straight game against San Diego State behind the arm of junior Stephen Smith and the bats of senior Daniel Stovall and junior Matt Hibbitts. Smith hurled a career-high 7.1 innings, allowing just four runs on seven hits, five strikeouts and no walks in the 8-4 win at Isotopes Park Saturday night. Hibbitts finished 2-for-3 with a team-high four RBI while Stovall went 2-for-4 with two RBI.
Hibbitts and Stovall had help tallying six of the team’s seven RBI as senior Matt Foote and junior Jordan Pacheco combined to score five of the team’s eight runs. Foote was just 1-for-5 but scored two runs while Pacheco went 1-for-2, drawing two of the team’s five walks and scoring a team-leading three runs.
Pacheco’s lone hit of the night came in the first inning with two outs, driving the first pitch he saw into right field for a single. He scored the first run of the game in the next plate appearance as Stovall knocked his 71st career double into right center.
Two San Diego State singles in the top of the second evened the game at 1-1. Frank LoNigro, the only Aztec to record multiple hits, drove in the run with a single that dropped in just out of Stovall’s reach down the right field line.
Hibbitts put New Mexico back in front in the third, belting a double deep in left center with the bases loaded. Freshman Scott Gracey, Foote and Pacheco all scored on the play but the inning ended when Hibbitts was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple.
LoNigro cut the UNM lead to 4-2 in the fifth, leading off the inning with a home run to left field. Smith didn’t let it get to him, holding the Aztecs hitless the rest of the inning and in the sixth and seventh.
The Lobos added to their lead, scoring two in the sixth and two in the seventh. Stovall doubled and scored in the sixth and picked up a RBI on a groundout in the seventh while Hibbitts walked and scored in the sixth and added another RBI to his total with a single in the seventh.
With the win, Smith improved to 3-5 overall while SDSU’s Bruce Billings earned his first loss of the season, dropping to 2-1. Billings allowed six runs on nine hits, two walks with five strikeouts in 6.0 innings. Junior Adam Skelton closed out the game for UNM, throwing a perfect 1.2 innings.
The three-game series concludes tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. The game was originally scheduled for 1 p.m. but has been changed due to San Diego State travel plans.