Lobo Baseball – at Presley Askew Field, Las Cruces, N.M.
When: Tuesday – 6 p.m. (MT)
Who: New Mexico State Aggies
GoLobos.com: Live stats, box score, live stream, postgame recap and stats
Radio: ESPN Radio 101.7 The TEAM will broadcast the game
Video: The game will be shown on ESPN3.com. A link is available at the baseball schedule page at GoLobos.com
Mountain West Standings
| Place | School | MW record | Overall record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nevada | 21-6 | 38-11 |
| 2 | San Diego State | 17-9 | 31-18 |
| 3 | New Mexico | 13-11 | 24-22 |
| 3 | Fresno State | 13-11 | 23-25 |
| 5 | Air Force | 10-14 | 21-24 |
| 6 | UNLV | 6-15 |
22-24 |
| 7 | San José St. | 4-17 |
12-36 |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico Lobos have been a streaky team this season, and they will look to end their latest streak — a six-game losing skid — Tuesday night when they travel to face their Rio Grande Rivals, the New Mexico State Aggies.
UNM has winning streaks of four, five and seven games, and a stretch where they won five of six, but they also have a four-game losing streak and two six-game slides, including their current one. That can probably be chalked up to UNM being such a young team. Over 71 percent of their plate appearances have been taken by freshmen or sophomores, and their two rookie catchers — Cory Voss and Scottie Graham — have combined to catch 98.8 percent of UNM’s defensive outs this year. Those two have been on the field for 1,206 of UNM’s 1,220 outs.
This young team had no issue handling the Aggies when they met at Lobo Field on April 21, pounding out 25 hits in a 22-3 victory, which was the fourth straight game UNM has scored at least 10 runs against NMSU. It was the most runs UNM has scored against the Aggies since March 30, 1999, and it tied the second largest margin of victory in the history of the 236-game series. Only UNM’s 25-5 win on March 3, 1985, has seen a bigger win for either side.
However, that was the last win the Lobos have claimed. The Aggies, meanwhile, have a pair of road wins during that span to boost their season win total to eight. The Lobos can’t expect to just travel down I-25 and expect a repeat performance from two weeks ago. NMSU would love nothing more than to continue adding to UNM’s woes.
Against New Mexico State: The Lobos dominated the Aggies on April 21 in Albuquerque 22-3. It was the most runs in one game by UNM in the series since March 30, 1999.
Series Record: 155-81
Home: 75-29; Away: 60-46; Neutral: 0-2
Up Next: UNM returns to Lobo Field for its final four home games of the season: this weekend vs. San Jose State and next Tuesday vs. Arizona State.
• SCOUTING NEW MEXICO STATE … The Aggies have posted a pair of road wins since their loss to the Lobos on the 21st, but they still rank near the bottom of the NCAA in batting, pitching and fielding.
Quinnton Mack (.331), Joseph Koerper (.310) and Cameron Haskins (.301) are the only Aggies hitting better than .275. Mack also leads the team in slugging at .517 thanks to 10 doubles, four triples and three homers.
Reliever Matt Stein leads NMSU in ERA at 4.10 in 23 appearances spanning 26.1 innings. He’s one of just four Aggie pitchers who have an ERA below 6.89.
• YOUNG BACKSTOPS … Freshmen Cory Voss and Scottie Graham have combined to catch 402.0 of UNM’s 406.2 innings this season, which is 98.8 percent of the Lobos’ defensive outs. (Sophomore Lane Milligan has caught 4.2 innings over four games.)
• TWO GONE FOR GONZO … Luis Gonzalez became the first Lobo freshman since DJ Peterson on May 20, 2011, to hit two home runs in one game when he did so at Wichita State on Saturday, April 25.
• WALKING WOUNDED … The list of players that haven’t missed time due to injury this season for UNM is probably shorter than those that have missed time. The following players have all missed at least one game due to injury this season for the Lobos: Sam Haggerty, Colton Thomson, Lane Milligan, Chris DeVito, Dalton Bowers, Cory Voss, Drew Bridges, Jared Holley, Jack Zoellner, Preston Ryan, Conner Rusch, Danny Collier and Jake Cole. That’s seven starters, three starting pitchers and a couple of valuable bullpen arms.
• FRESHMEN LEADERS … The Lobos have a number of freshmen making cases for being named a Freshman All-American. Third baseman Carl Stajduhar currently ranks 23rd in the nation in doubles with 18, which is second among freshmen. Catcher Cory Voss is second in the nation among freshmen with a .607 slugging percentage. He is also second in the Mountain West in conference play with a .402 batting average.
• LET’S TURN TWO … New Mexico has been one of the most prolific teams in the nation in turning double plays since 2012. Over the last three-plus seasons UNM has turned 221 double plays, which is in the top 10 for most in the country during that span. This season they are fourth in the NCAA with 52 twin killings, and fifth in double plays per game with 1.13.
• 1,600 AND COUNTING … UNM’s game against UNLV on Friday, April 17 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 28 games since then, however, UNM is batting .317 and seven of their nine projected starters this weekend are at .307 or better during that span. Five (Chris DeVito, Danny Collier, Aaron Siple, Cory Voss and Jack Zoellner) have hit over .340 in that time.
• STAJ ON FIRE … Carl Stajduhar posted a 14-game hitting streak from April 8 to May 1. He hit 27-for-60 (.450) with nine doubles, 12 runs and 19 RBIs during the streak with eight multi-hit games.
• BULLPEN DOMINANCE … The UNM bullpen has been outstanding at protecting leads during the last several seasons. If UNM is leading after eight innings? Forget it. The Lobos haven’t lost when leading after eight in 77 straight games, a streak that dates back to March 24, 2013.