Lobo Baseball – at Lobo Field
When: Tuesday – 6 p.m. (MT); Wednesday – 3 p.m. (MT)
Who: Grand Canyon University Antelopes
GoLobos.com: Live stats, live stream, box score, postgame recap and stats
Video: Both games will be streamed by LoboTV on the Mountain West Network at GoLobos.com
Radio: ESPN Radio 101.7 The TEAM will carry both games of the series.
Mountain West Standings
| Place | School | MW record | Overall record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego State | 14-4 | 26-11 |
| 2 | Nevada | 13-5 | 27-9 |
| 3 | New Mexico | 11-7 | 19-15 |
| 4 | Fresno State | 9-6 | 18-18 |
| 5 | Air Force | 8-10 | 15-19 |
| 6 | San José St. | 3-15 |
9-26 |
| 7 | UNLV | 2-13 |
15-19 |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico Lobos will look to extend their current three-game winning streak when they welcome the equally hot Grand Canyon Antelopes to Lobo Field this week. GCU has won six straight games, boasts a team batting average over .300, and defeated Bradley by a score of 30-7 earlier this season.
UNM will need some pitching like it received last weekend to help keep the Antelopes in check. Toller Boardman got it started with 7.2 innings of four-hit ball on Friday to help the Lobos defeat Air Force 6-1. Starter James Harrington struggled on Saturday, but Alex Estrella and Jake Cole were great in relief as UNM won 10-6. But freshman Tyler Stevens bettered them all with a one-hit, complete-game shutout on Sunday, the first such performance by a Lobo pitcher since 1976.
The Lobos will turn to a pair of southpaws, sophomore Carson Schneider and freshman Luis Gonzalez, to keep the good pitching going. Schneider set a UNM freshman record for appearances last season with 24, but has started four games this season and acquitted himself nicely. This will be Gonzalez’s first career start, but in his first outing for UNM this year he held the Oregon State Beavers hitless for 4.1 innings.
UNM’s offense is also starting to click more and more with each passing series. Danny Collier owns a 16-game hitting streak and has raised his average nearly 200 points since mid February to tie for the team batting lead with freshman catcher Cory Voss. Chris DeVito (.333), Lane Milligan (.321) and Jack Zoellner (.297) give UNM three more dangerous left-handed bats, while Carl Stajduhar (.282) has consistently hit the ball hard. The entire Lobo lineup will need to be at the top of its game to compete against the visiting Antelopes this week before UNM returns to Mountain West play with a trip to UNLV this weekend.
Against Grand Canyon: This is the first meeting between the schools since 2000, when the Lobos were swept in three games on the road.
Series Record: 16-10
Home: 7-2; Away: 8-8; Neutral: 1-0
Up Next: UNM returns to Mountain West play and travels to UNLV for their only series against the Rebels this season.
• SCOUTING GRAND CANYON … The Antelopes are playing very well of late, having won six straight, all of which were at home, though. They are just 5-8 on the road this season. Offensively they are a very good hitting team with a .301 batting average. Freshman designated hitter Thomas Lerouge leads the team with a .385 average, but three other starters are at .360 or above. Senior second baseman Chad De La Guerra leads the team in slugging thanks to a team-high six homers.
The pitching staff for GCU isn’t quite as solid as its offense, but it hasn’t been poor either. The Antelopes own a 4.17 team ERA and have struck out 237 batters versus just 115 walks. Opponents are hitting just .259 against them, and they’ve allowed just 296 hits in 300 innings.
• STEVENS’ HISTORIC OUTING … Tyler Stevens had one of the best pitching performances in the last 40 years for the Lobos on Sunday, April 12. He allowed just one hit in a complete-game shutout of the Air Force Falcons. It was UNM’s first one-hit game of any kind since March 6, 1976. It was the first solo one-hitter March 25, 1973, and it was the first nine-inning one-hitter since April 15, 1965.
He faced just one batter over the minimum, did not walk anyone, and struck out a career-high four batters. He retired the final 16 Falcon hitters after an error in the fourth inning.
• STEVENS MW PiOW … It came as no surprise given his performance, but Tyler Stevens was named MW Pitcher of the Week on Monday, April 13 following his one-hit shutout of the Air Force Falcons.
• 1,600 … Friday’s game against UNLV will mark the 1,600th game of head coach Ray Birmingham’s career.
• COLLIER ON FIRE … Danny Collier started the season in a small funk, going just 1-for-11 over UNM’s first three games. Since then, though, he is 40-for-108 (.370) and has just two hitless games, one of which was an 0-for-1 performance that saw him leave the game after one inning due to an ankle injury. He’s currently on a 16 -game hitting streak in which he has gone 26-for-67 (.388) to raise his average to .345.
• FOLLOW MY LEAD … The Lobos have had their leadoff man reach in 122 of their 298 innings, good for an inning-starting OBP of .409.
• INJURED STARTERS … The injury bug has hit the Lobos hard this season, especially in the starting lineup. Sam Haggerty, who was an Academic All-American in 2013 and the second baseman on the All-MW Preseason Team has been out since March 7. Danny Collier, the MW Freshman of the Year in 2014, missed some time with an ankle injury. Colton Thomson, who was UNM’s Friday-night starter heading into the season, has been out since March 14. Drew Bridges began the season as UNM’s Sunday starter, but he has also missed time due to injury. Conner Rusch, who was expected to be a midweek starter for UNM this year, and could have seen time on the weekend due to injuries to Thomson and Bridges, has missed the entire season. Now the Lobos are without Dalton Bowers, who has battled through leg injuries to start the first 28 games of the season at shortstop.
• YOUNG LINEUP … The Lobos have one of the youngest lineups in the country, and it’s evidenced by the fact that 65 percent of their plate appearances have come from freshmen and sophomores, which is the eighth highest percentage in the nation. Right now UNM can expect to start just one or two upperclassmen — Aaron Siple in right and Dalton Bowers at short — and seven freshmen and sophomores.
• COLE, VOSS SWEEP MW WEEKLY AWARDS … Senior RHP Jake Cole and freshman catcher Cory Voss were named Mountain West Pitcher and Player of the Week on Monday, March 30. It was the first career honor for both players, and it was the first weekly honors for UNM this season. Voss was also named the College Sports Madness MW Player of the Week.
• NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY … Speaking of youth, the Lobos current weekend rotation looks almost nothing like how the coaching staff drew it up before the season. The five Lobos that will start on the mound this week for UNM (Toller Boardman, Tyler Stevens, Carson Schneider, James Harrington and Luis Gonzalez) entered the 2015 season with a combined total of ONE Division I start, and that was by Boardman as a member of the Texas Longhorns back in 2013. Schneider made a UNM fresman-record 24 appearances out of the bullpen last season, but did start a game, while Stevens, Harrington and Gonzalez were in high school. This year, however, those five have started 22 of UNM’s 34 games (64.7 percent) heading into the series against Grand Canyon.