May 24, 2013
Complete Box: No. 13 Lobos 7, UNLV 1 
FRESNO, Calif. — Coming into the Mountain West Tournament, the 13th-ranked New Mexico Lobos figured to ride their bats to another conference championship. But head coach Ray Birmingham knew pitching would be even more important.
Before the tournament he said, “We’re the best hitting team in the nation, but pitching and defense is going to have to carry us.”
Through two games in Fresno, the Lobo skipper has proven to be quite prescient, and Nevada and UNLV were blasted to the wayside.
New Mexico’s Sam Wolff threw a solid 6 2/3 innings Friday night and was relieved by Hobie McClain, who finished the game without allowing a hit or a run. The No. 1 seed Lobos (37-18) slapped down the No. 2 seed Rebels (37-19) 7-1 to advance to the Mountain West Tournament championship game.
“Those two were fantastic,” UNM head coach said about his two senior pitchers. “How about that? UNLV is a great hitting team. Chase Harris ran down a couple balls in the outfield. He’s the best defensive outfielder around.”
UNLV came into the contest ranked 13th in the nation in batting sporting a .311 team average, but Wolff and McClain held them to just four hits.
“Everything is coming together at the right time,” said Wolff who threw 75 of his career-high 124 pitches for strikes. “We’re not done, we have a long ways to go and we’re still trying to get better every game, but our pitching has so much confidence in our hitting right now. It’s making our job easy. We’re finally realizing that if we go out and pound the zone, our hitters are going to back us up.”
Wolff has been simply unhittable of late. In his last six starts, spanning 39 innings, he has allowed only four earned runs on 24 hits, only three of which went for extra bases, and 13 walks. He has struck out 31 and lowered his ERA from 4.82 to 3.05.
“I felt good out there,” he said. “I just tried to pound the zone like I do every time out. I felt nice and loose and just tried to force contact all night.”
The man with the best view of Wolff’s performance, catcher Mitch Garver, came away thoroughly impressed.
“Sam Wolff did a great job,” he said. “He’s throwing the ball better than he ever has his entire life. We have a very good chemistry right now and he’s just pitching his butt off. Then Hobie came in behind him and shut them down.”
The Rebels fall into the losers’ bracket to face San Diego St. which beat Fresno State 4-0 earlier Friday. The winner of that game has to climb out of the losers’ bracket with a worn pitching staff and try to take two straight from the Lobos, one of the nation’s hottest teams who have won 20 of their last 22 games.
The Lobos scored a run in the first, a run in the second and two runs in the third to claim a 4-0 lead that UNLV would never erase.
Harris opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning with a walk. He stole second and advanced to third on a ground out by Sam Haggerty and scored on a single by Garver. Harris doubled in the second inning to push across Luke Campbell, who led off the second frame with a double of his own.
Those two runs were all the Lobos would need with Wolff and McClain mowing down Rebels from the mound. The two UNM arms combined to strike out 10 — Wolff tied a career high with seven and McClain three in his 2 1/3 innings.
The Lobos jumped up 4-0 in the bottom of the third inning when Garver blasted a homer over the left field wall to score DJ Peterson, who led off the frame with a single.
Garver also scored in the fifth after leading off the frame with a double. He scored on a grounder by Josh Melendez.
New Mexico ended the game with 10 hits and no errors as the top of the UNM lineup – Harris, Haggerty, Peterson, and Garver – combined for eight hits, six runs and four RBI. Garver went 3-for-4 with three runs scored and three RBI as he finished a triple short of the cycle. Melendez also had two RBI for UNM.
“I had to make a few adjustments coming into tonight,” Garver said. “I worked with Coach B this morning to stay short through the ball, and I just had to get my swing back to where it was.”
Wolff ran into his only real trouble in the seventh. He opened the frame with a strikeout, but Justin Jones hit a hard single to right field and Erik VanMeetren reached on a fielders choice that forced Jones out at second. VanMeetren was pushed to third on a single by Matt McCallister and scored on a single to the right side by Joey Swanner.
UNM went to the bullpen at that point and pulled out McClain, who struck out T.J. White on three pitches to put out the flames on UNLV’s two-out rally.
The Lobos immediately answered, though, as Haggerty helped send UNLV’s Buddy Borden to the showers in the bottom of the inning. He led off with a single up the middle, which brought up Peterson.
The Rebs brought in Brady Zuniga to face the Co-Player of the Year in the Mountain West. Peterson welcomed the fresh Vegas arm with a single to left that sent Haggerty to second.
Zuniga then had to face the other Co-MW Player of the Year, Garver. The Albuquerque native lashed a grounder deep into the hole to the right side of the UNLV shortstop, who robbed Garver of a single and tossed out Peterson at second and keep Haggerty at third. Garver stole second to place Lobos at third and second with one out.
Pinch hitter Ryan Padilla was next, and he hit a shot to short. The Rebels got Garver in a rundown between second and third, but when Haggerty made a dash to home plate, they threw there in attempt to retire him. The throw to the plate beat the freshman, but he dove around the Rebel catcher to the infield-side of the field and avoided the tag.
UNM was now up 6-1, and it became 7-1 with the very next batter. Melendez came up and singled up the middle as Garver trotted in with UNM’s seventh run. UNLV went to the bullpen for its third arm of the game and Andrew Beresford got Luke Campbell to hit a liner that was snared by UNLV’s first baseman. Melendez had no chance as he was doubled off first to end the inning.
But that would be more than enough support for McClain as he and the Lobo defense did the rest. He needed just 31 pitches to record seven outs as he allowed just one base runner: a one-out walk in the ninth.
The Lobos have now won nine straight MW Tournament games dating back to 2011 as they try to win their third straight tournament title.
“That would be huge for this program,” Wolff said. “It’s what we’re all about. We’re always trying to get better and battle. But we’re hungry. We’re not going to settle for conference championships. We want to keep going.”
His head coach agreed.
“We have a long ways to go,” Birmingham said. “We’re trying to do something special.”
Fans can listen to the championship game on ESPN Radio 101.7 The Team at 8 p.m. (MT). The game will also be broadcast on the Mountain West Digital Network, and fans can watch for free at TheMWC.com.
Notes: Garver’s double was the 66th of his career, which ties him with Joe Salas for fifth all-time at UNM … it was the 28th appearance of the season for McClain, which ties him with Walker for fourth most in a single season in UNM history … UNM’s 37 wins ties the squad for fourth most in a single season in program history …