LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The University of New Mexico baseball team held on for a 10-8 win over the UNLV Rebels Saturday afternoon to win its seventh straight game. The Lobos (22-15, 13-7) kept pace in the race for first place in the Mountain West and is two games behind Nevada.
Carl Stajduhar drove in five runs and Chris DeVito went 3-for-3 with a career-high four runs scored to lead the Lobos. UNM recorded 19 hits and six players had at least two. Jack Zoellner tied his career-high, for the second time this week, with four hits.
UNM fell behind 3-0 in the first but scored 10 of the next 11 runs to take control of the game. UNLV (15-22, 2-15) scored three in the seventh to cut the score to 10-8, but Hayden Schilling recorded the final two outs for his second save of the season. Schilling also drove in two runs for the Lobos, as eight of the nine starters recorded at least one hit.
Jack Zoellner got UNM on the board with an RBI double in the second. Two batters later Schilling drove him in with a groundout, and Danny Collier followed with a single to score Dalton Bowers.
UNLV responded with one in the bottom of the inning to take a 4-3 lead, but Stajduhar hit a 1-0 pitch over the wall in left-center for his third homer of the season to give the Lobos a lead they would not relinquish. Stajduhar added another RBI on a double in the fourth, and Zoellner drove in DeVito for the eventual winning run later in the frame.
In the ninth Schilling came on with one on and one out. He walked the first batter he faced on four pitches, but he got a groundout to shortstop and a grounder to first to end the game. Schilling now owns a 1.46 ERA on the year. Carson Schneider (4-1) earned the win by hurling 2.1 shutout innings of relief.
Nevada defeated San Diego State to allow the Lobos to pull within one game of the Aztecs for second place in the MW. UNM remains two games back of the Wolf Pack.
UNM will look for its second straight MW sweep on Sunday at 2 p.m. MT. Freshman Tyler Stevens, the reigning MW Pitcher of the Week, will get the start for the Lobos. Fans can catch the game on the Mountain West Network
Notes: Stevens tossed a one-hit shutout of Air Force last Sunday … Lane Milligan went 1-for-3 with three walks … Sam Haggerty saw his first game action in over a month as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning … Bowers tied a season-high with three hits.