Lobo Baseball – hosting Lobo Invite at Lobo Field
When: Friday – 4 p.m., Saturday – 4 p.m., Sunday – 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Who: Northern Illinois and Missouri St.
GoLobos.com: Live stats, live stream, box score, postgame recap and stats
Video: Live stream available at GoLobos.com
Radio: ESPN Radio 101.7 The TEAM will be broadcasting the games Friday and Saturday and game one on Sunday. Fans can listen on their radio, online at GoLobos.com or on the TuneIn app.
Mountain West Standings
| Place | School | MW record | Overall record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego St. | 2-1 | 3-1 |
| 2 | San Jose St. | 1-2 | 1-4 |
| 3 | UNLV | 0-0 | 4-0 |
| 4 | Fresno St. | 0-0 | 3-2 |
| 5 | Nevada | 0-0 | 2-2 |
| 5 | New Mexico | 0-0 |
2-2 |
| 7 | Air Force | 0-0 |
1-2 |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – After four games on the road to begin their season, the Lobos return home as they host Missouri State and Northern Illinois in the Lobo Invite this weekend at Lobo Field. UNM plays Northern Illinois Friday at 4 p.m. and Missouri State Saturday at 4 p.m. The Lobos then play a doubleheader Sunday, beginning with Missouri State at 10 a.m. and concluding with Northern Illinois at 1 p.m. MSU and NIU will also play each other at noon both Friday and Saturday.
The Lobos are coming off a solid 7-1 win at No. 19 Arizona State on Tuesday night. It was UNM’s first win in Tempe since April 2, 2003. The Lobos received solid pitching performances from Victor Sanchez (who made his first career start), Taylor Duree, Jonathan Cuellar (who earned his second career win) and Jake Cole. A five-run fifth sparked the Lobos’ offense to its best offensive performance of the young season.
• PARKING NOTICE FOR SATURDAY … Due to conflicts with men’s basketball at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22, fans attending the Lobos’ game vs. Missouri St. at 4 p.m. are asked to park in the dirt parking lots south and enter the stadium south of Lobo Field. There will be NO PARKING FOR BASEBALL in Pit West or any other lot other than Baseball South.
There is a neutral game that begins at 12 p.m. at Lobo Field. Both the neutral and Lobo baseball game will be free to all attendees on Saturday. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.
This situation is for UNM’s baseball game on Saturday, Feb. 22 ONLY. The games on Friday, Feb. 21 and Sunday, Feb. 23 will use the normal parking lots in Pit West and fans will enter through the north gate.
• SCOUTING NORTHERN ILLINOIS … The Huskies have started the season 0-3 after a season-opening sweep at the hands of Minneosta. As a team, they hit just .257, but senior Chris Divarco hit .583 (7-for-12) and fellow senior Alex Klonowski hit .429 (6-for-14). No other Huskie hit better than .286. Additionally, the team slugged just .303 and posted an OBP of .311.
The pitching staff did an okay job of hold Minnesota batters in check, limiting them to a .263 average, but the staff walked 19 batters and hit three others in 25.1 innings. Dirk Ormsby, who will start vs. the Lobos Friday evening, pitched 0.1 innings last Friday vs. Minnesota and allowed one run on two hits. In addition to being one of NIU’s better hitters, Klonowski is also the Huskies’ Sunday starter. In 4.1 innings last Sunday, he gave up five runs on five hits and four walks.
• SCOUTING MISSOURI STATE … The Bears opened their season at the University of Central Arkansas and won two out of three games. Three players hit over .400 for MSU and five hit better than .300. Senior catcher/first baseman Connor Smith led the way with a .467 average and hit one of the team’s three home runs. He’s slugging .867 on the early season. Sophomore lefty Matt Hall and senior righty Clay Murphy are scheduled to start on the mound vs. the Lobos. Hall started MSU’s season opener and allowed four runs on four hits and two walks in four innings as the Bears rallied for an 11-5 victory. Murphy started the series finale and allowed four runs (three earned) on seven hits in 4.1 innings. Overall the staff held UCA to a .255 batting average and a .362 slugging percentage.
• GAME 3,000 … The number 3,000 holds a special place in baseball, and the Lobos will celebrate a certain milestone in their eighth game of the season. UNM’s game against Missouri State on Sunday as part of the Lobo Invite will be the 3,000th intercollegiate game in program history. UNM has played over 3,200 baseball games in its history, but several of those have come as exhibitions or games against high schools (including UNM’s first ever baseball game, an 18-9 triumph over Albuquerque High in 1899). The oldest recorded intercollegiate game in program history came against Arizona in 1940. The Lobos have posted an all-time record of 1,552-1,427-13 for a winning percentage of .521.
• NO RIGHT OF WAY … Lobo pitchers are holding opposing right-handed batters to a .217 average so far this season. Meanwhile, Lobo batters are hitting .313 against right-handed pitching.
• FOLLOW MY LEAD … The Lobos have had their leadoff man reach in 19 of 38 innings this season for an inning-starting OBP of .500.
• IMPRESSIVE DEBUT … Junior southpaw Colton Thomson made his collegiate debut in the nightcap of the Lobos’ doubleheader at San Diego on Feb 15, and he made quite an impression. He held the Toreros hitless through five innings before finally allowing one hit, and one run, in the sixth.
• YOUTH MOVEMENT … The Lobos will field one of the youngest teams in the nation this year with no fourth-year seniors and only four third-year players: juniors Alex Real and Ryan Padilla, and seniors Josh Walker and John Pustay. In fact, the entire roster only has 19 seasons of Division I experience, eight of which comes from those four upperclassmen. In the team’s opening series of the season at the University of San Diego, 13 Lobos saw their first intercollegiate action.
• BIRMINGHAM NAMED TO TEAM USA STAFF … Head coach Ray Birmingham will be part of USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team this summer as the hitting coach. He has led the Lobos to the team national batting title twice in six years at UNM (2009, 2013) as well as Justin Howard to an individual national batting title (2010). Additionally, the 2012 Lobos finished fifth in the nation with a team average of .326, and the 2008 squad placed eighth at .346.
“This is a big honor,” the Lobo skipper said. “I am both humbled and excited.”
Birmingham’s teams have averaged a .326 batting average since he took over the Lobo program in 2008, and have amassed 140 doubles, 29 triples and 41 home runs per season. In 2013 the Lobos were the only team in the nation to reach those respective totals in all four categories.
• PRESEASON FIRST … The UNM baseball team is no stranger to preseason All-Americans. In fact, they had three just last season in DJ Peterson, Mitch Garver and Ryan Padilla. What the team had never had, however, was a pitcher earn Preseason All-America honors. That changed this season, though. Following a stellar 2013 campaign that saw him win a Mountain West-leading 11 games, and save seven others, senior right-handed pitcher Josh Walker earned Third Team All-America honors from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
“It means a lot to me,” he said. “I never would have imagined this … This is one of the highest recognitions I can receive at this point. I want to thank my teammates and coaches for pushing me so hard.”
A native of Rio Rancho, N.M., Walker currently owns the school record for highest winning percentage, and with eight wins in 2014 will tie the record for most career wins in program history.