Lobo Baseball – at Lobo Field
When: Friday – 6 p.m. (MT); Saturday – 2 p.m. (MT); Sunday – 1 p.m. (MT)
Who: San José State Spartans
GoLobos.com: Live stats, box score, live stream, postgame recap and stats
Radio: ESPN Radio 101.7 The TEAM will broadcast all three games
Video: Each game will be streamed on the Mountain West Network and can be found at GoLobos.com
TV: uPUBLICtv is producing the games and airing them locally on Comcast channel 26
Mountain West Standings
| Place | School | MW record | Overall record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nevada | 21-6 | 38-12 |
| 2 | San Diego State | 17-10 | 32-18 |
| 3 | New Mexico | 13-11 | 24-23 |
| 3 | Fresno State | 13-11 | 24-25 |
| 5 | Air Force | 10-14 | 21-24 |
| 6 | UNLV | 6-15 |
22-25 |
| 7 | San José St. | 4-17 |
12-37 |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico Lobos are in the midst of their longest losing streak since the start of the 2011 season. They’re dealing with injuries and viruses, but they’re not making excuses.
“It is what it is,” head coach Ray Birmingham said. “We just need to suck it up and play better.”
The Lobos hope a visit from the last-place team in the Mountain West, the San José State Spartans (12-37, 5-19), will be able to cure their ails. However, earlier this week they suffered their worst loss of the season at New Mexico State, a team they had pummelled 22-3 just two weeks prior, and the Spartans own two wins against the regular-season MW champion Nevada Wolf Pack.
UNM’s injury report is replete with potential and former Freshmen All-Americans: Danny Collier is dealing with a knee injury; Sam Haggerty missed 31 games with an oblique injury and isn’t 100 percent; Carl Stajduhar (groin) and Cory Voss (thumb) both have nagging injuries as well. The Lobos’ situation is so desperate they have a closer (Hayden Schilling) starting at shortstop due to injuries to Jared Holley (quad) and Dalton Bowers (ankle). They’ve also lost their starting pitchers for Saturday (Colton Thomson), Sunday (Drew Bridges) and Tuesday (Conner Rusch).
Despite all that, though, they are still in the hunt for a bye in the conference tournament. They are just a game behind San Diego State in the loss column for second place in the MW, and the Aztecs play at Air Force this weekend. A series loss by SDSU, coupled with two UNM sweeps in their final two series, would give UNM the No. 2 seed.
But first thing’s first. Right now, UNM needs to take things a game at a time against the Spartans. The Lobos are at the point in their season where they can’t overlook any opponent, no matter what their record may be.
Against San José State: The Lobos took five of six from the Spartans last season, but just two of three in Albuquerque.
Series Record: 8-4
Home: 5-1; Away: 3-3; Neutral: 0-0
Up Next: UNM plays its final home game of the year Tuesday against Arizona State.
• SCOUTING SAN JOSÉ STATE … The Spartans are currently in last in the Mountain West and are in the midst of a difficult season.
They’re hitting just .236 as a team and don’t have a qualifier hitting better than Brett Bautista’s .281. Ozzy Braff is batting .342, but only in 73 at bats. They have just nine home runs and are slugging .298. To put that in perspective, there are 30 NCAA teams with higher batting averages.
The pitching staff has fared a little better, but owns a 6.49 ERA and is allowing opponents to hit .313. The weekend rotation features senior ace Kalei Contrades (3-8, 4.98), a Preseason All-MW pick, and two freshmen in Josh Nashed (3-4, 5.85) and Hilario Tovar (1-5, 9.08). That trio accounts for seven of SJSU’s 12 wins. The closer is freshman Turtle Kuhaulua, who owns the best ERA on the team at 3.60 and has five saves. He has struck out 41 in 45.0 innings and walked 13.
• ESTRELLA NAMED ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT … Redshirt junior left-handed pitcher Alex Estrella was named to CoSIDA’a Academic All-District team on May 7. He owns a 4.18 GPA in economics and is already pursuing his MBA in finance.
• YOUNG BACKSTOPS … Freshmen Cory Voss and Scottie Graham have combined to catch 410.0 of UNM’s 414.2 innings this season, which is 98.9 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 25th in the nation in doubles with 18, which is second among freshmen. Catcher Cory Voss is second in the nation among freshmen with a .601 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 222 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 53 twin killings, and fifth in double plays per game with 1.13.