ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Last season the University of New Mexico softball team started out with one of the toughest schedules in the country. This season, head coach Erica Beach, was still looking for a tough schedule again but something that was a little bit more manageable and balanced for her team.
“We want to balance out our schedule this year,” said Beach. “There is such a thing as too tough or too easy and we are trying to be tough but balanced this year. We want to challenge the team but we want to be able to get our feet underneath us.”
The Lobos will kick off the season with the Kajikawa Classic at Arizona State for the third straight season. Coach Beach is an alumna of Arizona State, playing from 1999-2002 and enjoys taking her team back there. The teams that they are playing at the tournament are still to be determined and will be announced at a later date.
“It is one of the best tournaments in the country. It is close and we have a lot of family and fans that can come watch our girls play. Our whole team is from the southwest region so it’s easy for them. And it’s always a great tournament for us.”
For the first time, the Lobos will be heading to the Easton Desert Classic that is hosted by Mountain West foe UNLV. The opponents for the tournament will also be determined at a later date. Beach chose this tournament because the Mountain West is coming together to help each other out in the long run of post season play.
“They are helping us out by giving us a good schedule. We also have a player from Vegas so our fans can make that trip easy as well. It will be strong competition but balanced at the same time.”
Following the Las Vegas trip, New Mexico will head to the big state of Texas for a tournament in Houston for the first time in Beach’s era. The Lobos will return home to play host for two weekends in a row, hosting Providence, Rutgers and UC Bakersfield in those weekends.
“It’s a new region for us. We haven’t been to Houston as a team yet and I really want to expand our horizons a little bit and try to play against some different competition instead of facing the same teams over and over again.”
The Lobos’ final nonconference games will be in Charleston, South Carolina. They will play a double header with Georgia Southern and more games that are still to be determined.
To start conference games, UNM will be on the road to Utah State and will host teams every other weekend. As always, it will take on New Mexico State twice, once on March 24 at the Lobo Softball Field and once on April 14 at New Mexico State.
The Lobos will have bye weekend April 17-19 and will finish up their final two weekends at home, playing host to Boise State and San Jose State.
Last season the Lobos finished 16-36 overall and 7-17 in Mountain West play with five of the MW wins coming against the top five teams in the league race.