UNM Drops 8-5 Contest at Arizona St.
TEMPE, Ariz.- The University of New Mexico baseball team lost 8-5 to Arizona State Wednesday night. After falling behind 5-1 after two, the Lobos (9-7-1) rallied to tie the game in the third, but ASU (8-6) scored three in the fourth to secure the victory.
The Sun Devils made the most of their situational hitting, hitting .500 (8-for-16) and scoring seven runs with two outs.
“We competed well,” UNM head coach Ray Birmingham said, “but we still need to get better. We’re getting there.”
UNM got the scoring started right away. Sam Haggerty led off the game with a full count-walk. He moved to second by virtue of a throwing error on a botched pickoff attempt and to third on a single by Danny Collier. Two batters later he scored on a wild pitch to give the Lobos an early 1-0 lead.
ASU used a two-out rally to take the lead in the bottom of the first. With a man on first ASU knocked a pair of doubles followed by a single to take a 3-1 advantage.
After the Sun Devils tacked on two more in the second, UNM got right back into it in the top of the third. Aaron Siple led off with a single up the middle, and Haggerty followed with a single through the left side. Each runner moved up a base on a sacrifice bunt by Collier.
Chase Harris then singled deep to the hole at short to knock Siple home and move Haggerty to third. Another wild pitch allowed Haggerty to score and Harris to move to scoring position. Alex Real then doubled down the line in left to drive in Harris. Ryan Padilla then singled to center to bring home Real and tie the score.
ASU re-took the lead on a two-out, two-run double and an RBI single in the fourth off reliever Kevin Baumgartner to make the score 8-5.
Freshman Preston Ryan, from McClintock High School in Tempe, made his first career start and went two innings. He struck out two but allowed five runs on seven hits. Kevin Baumgartner (0-1) suffered the loss by allowing three runs in 2.1 innings of relief. He struck out five and allowed three hits with one walk.
Harris led the team with two hits and Haggerty’s two runs scored pushed his team-leading total to 17 on the season.
UNM remains on the road and travels to face Fresno State for three Mountain West games this weekend. Game one starts Friday night at 7:35 (MT) and will be streamed live at GoLobos.com.
“We have to go into Fresno and make some noise,” Birmingham said. We can win this league but we have to keep improving.”
Notes: A.J. Carman tossed two scoreless innings of relief, Matt Villalobos made his third appearance and was perfect in 0.2 innings, and Mike Gould hurled a scoreless eighth for UNM.