June 1, 2013
Complete Box: Lobos 5, Columbia 6 (13 innings) 
FULLERTON, Calif. – Baseball can be a cruel game, and the University of New Mexico baseball team learned that lesson in painful fashion Saturday night. The Lobos saw their season come to a heart-breaking end in 13 innings as they fell to Columbia 6-5 in an elimination game in the Fullerton regional.
UNM (37-22) led Columbia (28-20) 5-0 in the eighth inning, but the Lions used a couple of bloop hits to tie the game.
The winning run came in the 13th when, with a runner on second, Nick Crucet bounced a ball between first and second. Sam Haggerty dove and the ball glanced off the tip of his glove.
That caused the ball to change directions ever so slightly, and right fielder Chase Harris had to reach behind him to stop the ball. That gave Columbia’s runner, Nick Ferraresi, just enough time to race home as he managed to slide in and around the throw safely to provide the game’s winning run.
The Lobos then advanced the tying run to third with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but All-American DJ Peterson struck out swinging to end the game.
“It’s over and it hurts,” UNM head coach Ray Birmingham said matter-of-factly after the game.
The Lobos dropped four straight to end the season, three by one run, after rising to No. 13 in the rankings, which is the highest the program has ever been ranked.
“We lost our last four ballgames in games like that, and two of them involved plays at the plate that were bang-bang,” Birmingham said. “The kids keep fighting, they keep scratching, they keep battling, and they’ve gone down to the last pitch. We won a lot of games and came from behind throughout the year, and I think one thing that is a testament to this group is they never give up. They always keep fighting.”
For the second straight game the Lobos jumped out to a 1-0 first-inning lead. Chase Harris led off the bottom of the first and was hit by a pitch. Sam Haggerty set a new UNM record with his 16th sacrifice bunt of the season as he advanced Harris to second. One batter later Mitch Garver singled over the shortstop’s head to give UNM the early advantage.
That’s where the score remained until the fifth when UNM added one more on back-to-back two-out doubles by Haggerty and DJ Peterson. The double was the 78th of Peterson’s career, which tied the UNM mark held by Daniel Stovall.
With the Lobos clinging to a small lead, starter Sam Wolff was brilliant yet again. He shut down the Lions as he has every team he has faced over the last month and a half.
The Lobos increased their lead in the sixth with three runs on four straight hits. Josh Melendez singled and so did pinch hitter John Pustay. Up came Alex Allbritton who was robbed of a couple hits in UNM’s game against Arizona St. Friday night.
The senior hit a ground-rule double to left center to score Melendez. That put two men in scoring position for Jared Holley, who struggled in the field with three errors in two games. The freshman helped atone for his defensive miscues with a two-run single up the middle to expand UNM’s lead to 5-0.
“My teammates picked me up and helped me out,” Holley said. “I was struggling yesterday. I got emotional just like Coach (Birmingham) said. But then my teammates came up to me, like Gabe Aguilar. He was there for me.”
Columbia finally chased Wolff in the eighth, and after they did the floodgates opened.
After getting a weak grounder to first for the first out, Wolff gave up his first extra-base hit of the game, a double to left center. That was it for the senior as Hobie McClain came on in relief. The first batter the side-armed righty faced, though, hit a two-run homer to left center to cut UNM’s lead to 5-2.
Two walks sandwiched around a popup forced the Lobos to go to the bullpen again as UNM brought in closer Gabe Aguilar, who walked the first man on a close full-count pitch. Then back-to-back bloop singles, one to right and one two center, and scored three runs and just like that the game was tied.
Wolff tied a career high with seven strikeouts and allowed just one run in 7 1/3 innings. He gave up six hits, walked two and threw 76 of his 120 pitches for strikes. In his final 46 1/3 innings as a Lobo, he allowed just six runs, five earned, with 38 strikeouts and 11 walks.
“We stuck to the game plan that works for me as a pitcher,” he said. “I pounded the fastball and pitched off of that a lot. I tried to move it in and out on them and keep the ball down in the zone and let my defense work.”
In the ninth it appeared the Lobos were in deep trouble. A single up the middle and a bunt single put two men on with no outs. But Aguilar got a 6-4-3 double play, and on the very next pitch Garver threw behind the runner at third and picked him off to end the threat.
The Lobos had a threat of their own in the bottom of the ninth as they had men on first and second with only one out. But a diving stop by Columbia’s shortstop on a hard smash by Melendez started a 6-4-3 double play and the game headed to extras.
Each team put men on base as the game progressed into extras, but neither team had a solid scoring opportunity until the Lions scored in the 13th. Will Mathis (0-5), the fifth UNM pitcher of the day, was the hard-luck loser for the Lobos.
“The breaks didn’t go our way today and that’s baseball,” Birmingham said. “I tip my hat to Columbia.”
Holley tied a career-high with three hits and he also walked twice. Haggerty, Peterson, Garver and Luke Campbell all recorded two hits apiece.
Despite the disappointing end, the Lobos had one of the most successful seasons in school history. They won their second straight Mountain West regular-season title, and did so in commanding fashion as they won by a league-record seven games. They won every single MW series and 14 straight conference games at one point. They also lead the nation in team batting average.
UNM will lose a lot of talent and leadership this season in the likes of seniors Garver, Wolff, and Aguilar, and a junior, Peterson, who is expected to be a first-round draft pick in the MLB Draft next week, but the future remains bright for the Lobos. They will return several key pieces and figure to contend for another Mountain West championship in 2014.
Notes: Allbritton started at third and appeared in his 224th career game, fourth most as a Lobo … it was McClain’s 31st appearance of the season, which is tied for second most in a single season in school history … it was Aguilar’s 29th appearance of the season, tied for fifth most in a season, and the 66th of his career, tied for fourth most in the Cherry and Silver … Campbell finished his career with a 20-game hitting streak.