Lobo Baseball – at Lobo Field
When: Tuesday – 6 p.m. (MT)
Who: New Mexico State Aggies
GoLobos.com: Live stats, live stream, box score, postgame recap and stats
Video: The game will be streamed on the Mountain West Network and a link will be available at GoLobos.com
Radio: ESPN Radio 101.7 The TEAM will broadcast the game live
TV: uPUBLICtv will produce the game and air it on Comcast channel 26 in Albuquerque
Mountain West Standings
| Place | School | MW record | Overall record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nevada | 16-5 | 31-9 |
| 2 | San Diego State | 14-7 | 27-14 |
| 3 | New Mexico | 13-8 | 23-16 |
| 4 | Fresno State | 10-8 | 19-21 |
| 5 | Air Force | 10-11 | 18-20 |
| 6 | San José St. | 3-15 |
10-30 |
| 6 | UNLV | 3-15 |
16-22 |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico baseball team will look to get back to its winning ways against its struggling in-state rivals, the New Mexico State Aggies. The Lobos had their seven-game winning streak snapped in extra innings on Sunday at UNLV and will look to take out their frustrations on an Aggies’ squad that is just 6-29-1 on the year.
NMSU is, however, coming off its first series win of the season. The Aggies took two of three from Grand Canyon in Las Cruces, N.M., last weekend to help end a 12-game losing streak. Still, those two wins account for 33 percent of their wins on the year. They are hitting just .243 (272nd in the nation), have a staff ERA of 7.09 (282nd) and a fielding percentage of .943 (286th).
UNM, meanwhile, is playing its best ball of the year. Despite the loss to the Rebels on Sunday, the Lobos are hitting and pitching extremely well. Over their last 21 games they are hitting .323 as a team, and over the last eight games the staff has a 2.49 ERA. UNM has had the last two Mountain West Pitchers of the Week, and five Lobos are hitting .333 or better on the season.
Freshman Luis Gonzalez will make his second career start on the mound for the Lobos. In his first start last Wednesday vs. Grand Canyon, Gonzalez allowed two runs, one earned, in five innings while allowing just four hits. The Aggies will counter with a lefty of their own, and it will either be Trey Higginbotham (0-6, 8.35) or Michael Paulson (0-2, 9.00).
It will be a $2 Tuesday at Lobo Field as all tickets are just two dollars. The game will be streamed live on the Mountain West Network, and uPUBLICtv, which is producing the game, will air it on Comcast channel 26. ESPN Radio 101.7 The TEAM will also carry the game.
Against New Mexico State: After a stretch that saw UNM win just once in eight games, the Lobos have won four of their last five vs. the Aggies, including the last three.
Series Record: 154-81
Home: 74-29; Away: 60-46; Neutral: 0-2
Up Next: UNM plays its final non-conference series of the season at Wichita State this weekend.
• SCOUTING NEW MEXICO STATE … The Aggies are coming off their first series victory of 2015 last weekend when they took two out of three from Grand Canyon. Their 12-2 win on Friday snapped a 12-game losing streak.
NMSU is hitting just .243 as a team and has only three players better than .295. Joseph Koerper leads the team at .327, but Quinnton Mack has probably been the best hitter on the Aggies this year. He’s second behind Koerper at .321 and leads the team with 24 runs, 44 hits, 10 doubles, three triples and 20 walks. He’s second with three homers and 20 RBIs.
The Aggies’ staff has also struggled this year, posting a 7.09 ERA and a .329 batting average against. They’ve struck out 217 but walked 197 to allowed opponents to reach at a .427 clip. Senior reliever Matt Stein has been the most effective pitcher this season for NMSU. He leads the team with a 3.63 ERA and 20 appearances. He has struck out 23 in 22.1 innings and has limited opponents to a .250 average.
Defensively it doesn’t get much better for the Aggies. They’ve committed 79 errors and have a .943 fielding percentage, which is 286th in the nation.
• BOARDMAN LOBOS’ SECOND STRAIGHT MW PiOW … Toller Boardman was named the Mountain West Pitcher of the Week on April 20 following his seven shutout innings at UNLV on April 17. He struck out a career-high eight, walked just one and allowed five hits. He was the second straight Lobo to earn the honor, following Tyler Stevens on April 13.
• FRESHMEN LEADERS … The Lobos have a number of freshmen making cases for being named a Freshman All-American. Third baseman Carl Stajduhar currently ranks ninth in the nation in doubles with 17, which is two more than any other freshman. Catcher Cory Voss leads is fourth in the nation among freshmen with a .606 slugging percentage. He is also leading the Mountain West in conference play with a .419 batting average. Meanwhile, Tyler Stevens leads the Mountain West with a 2.45 ERA. And don’t forget two-way player Hayden Schilling, who has a 1.54 ERA in 12 relief appearances.
• 1,600 AND COUNTING … Friday’s game against UNLV marked the 1,600th game of head coach Ray Birmingham’s coaching career.
• LOBOS STARTING TO ROLL … Ray Birmingham is one of the best hitting coaches in the nation (and was the hitting coach for USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team last summer) as evidenced by the Lobos hitting at least .312 in all but one of his years at UNM. This year, though, they got off to a slow start, hitting just .259 through March 18. In the 21 games since then, however, UNM is batting .323 and seven of their nine projected starters this weekend are at .314 or better during that span. Five (Chris DeVito, Danny Collier, Lane Milligan, Cory Voss and Jack Zoellner) have hit over .365 in that time.
• STAJ ON FIRE … Perhaps no Lobo is hotter than freshman Carl Stajduhar. He is currently on a nine-game hitting streak after snapping an 0-for-13 stretch that lowered his season average to .250. He is 16-for-37 (.432) with eight doubles, eight runs and 15 RBIs during the streak with seven multi-hit games to push his average to .294.
• THREE FOR ME … UNM had gone nearly five years without having a player record two triples in one game (since Alex Allbritton did so on April 18, 2010, against Coppin State), but two Lobos have pulled the feat this year. On Tuesday, March 10, freshman catcher Cory Voss did it in UNM’s 8-5 loss to Stephen F. Austin. Sophomore Andre Vigil followed suit and matched him in UNM’s 14-2 win over Grand Canyon on Tuesday, April 15. Voss has continued banging out three-baggers and heading into the matchup with NMSU he is 12th in the NCAA with five triples, which is tops among all catchers.
• COLLIER’S STREAK … Danny Collier started the season in a small funk, going just 1-for-11 over UNM’s first three games. Since then, though, he has just three hitless games He recently had a 16 -game hitting streak snapped in which he went 26-for-67 (.388). It was the longest hitting streak in the Mountain West this season.
• FOLLOW MY LEAD … The Lobos have had their leadoff man reach in 139 of their 342 innings, good for an inning-starting OBP of .406.
• 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. Dalton Bowers and Jared Holley have each missed time in the middle infield. Most recently, designated hitter Chris DeVito missed Sunday’s game vs. UNLV after getting hit by a pitch.
• 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 two upperclassmen — Aaron Siple in right and Dalton Bowers at short — and seven freshmen and sophomores.