PHOENIX – The University of New Mexico baseball team dropped a hard-fought game at seventh-ranked Arizona State 4-3 Wednesday night. The Sun Devils (13-6) recorded three two-strike hits in the bottom of the eighth, the last of which came with two outs, to plate the eventual winning run.
The Lobos rallied in the ninth, though, against ASU All-American closer Ryan Burr. Luis Gonzalez reached on a throwing error and Hayden Schilling, in just his fifth career at bat, singled to center to put men on the corners with one out. But a strikeout and a groundout ended the threat and the game.
The lesson of this game was to get your leadoff man on. Of the seven combined runs that scored, five were leadoff batters that reached safely: three via walk, one by a hit and one by an error.
Those leadoff walks came back to hurt Lobo (11-6) starter Mike Gould in each of the first two innings as both came around to score as the Sun Devils jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two innings. James Harrington came in and pitched very effectively, though, in just his second career appearance. He struck out three over the next 3.1 frames to keep UNM close as the Lobos eventually clawed their way back into the game.
UNM got its first run in the sixth. Dalton Bowers led off with a walk and advanced to third on a hit-and-run single by Lane Milligan. Pinch hitter Ryan Padilla drove Bowers home with a sacrifice fly to center to cut the deficit to 3-1.
The Lobos tied it in the seventh on a two-out, two-RBI pinch-hit single by Jack Zoellner that was just out of the reach of ASU’s diving first baseman. Carl Stajduhar reached on a fielding error and Gonzalez walked. A sacrifice bunt by Jared Holley put both men into scoring position. Schilling’s sinking liner to left was caught in shallow left, but Zoellner came through to tie the game.
Milligan went 2-for-4 with UNM’s only extra-base hit of the game, a double in the third. Bowers and Gonzalez also reached base twice for the Lobos.
The Lobos host No. 24 Houston this weekend beginning Friday night at 6. Toller Boardman will make his sixth start of the season for UNM. ESPN Radio 101.7 The TEAM will broadcast all three games live, and each game will be streamed live on the Mountain West Network at GoLobos.com.
Notes: Schilling made the first start of his career, and he was one of four freshmen in the starting lineup for UNM … it was UNM’s fourth straight errorless game … Sam Haggerty and Danny Collier both remained out of the lineup with nagging injuries.