ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico softball team got out to an early start to claim a 7-5 win over Boise State despite an hour and 17-minute weather delay on Saturday afternoon at Lobo Softball Field. With the win the Lobos claimed the series; their fifth Mountain West series win of the season.
The bats were hot early as the Lobos took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. With one out, Shelbie Franc tripled to left center and scored off Mariah Rimmer’s shot down the left field line.
Boise State scored two runs in the top of the second but that didn’t matter to the Lobos as they scored six in the bottom half of the inning to take the lead for good.
“Our girls came out and put runs up right away,” said head coach Erica Beach. “We received production throughout our whole lineup and we also had some good execution of moving runners.”
Lisa Rodrigues led off the inning with a walk and advanced to second on Katie Gallucci’s first-ever hit in a Lobo uniform. Four straight singles from Michala Erickson, Brandi Heimburg, Franc and Rimmer gave the Lobos three runs and Chelsea Johnson drew a hit-by-pitch for knock in the fourth run of the inning.
The inning continued as Karissa Haleman hit a deep ball to right field to score Franc. The final run of the inning came on a fielder’s choice by Mia Hignojos to score Rimmer.
“This was a great team win. Boise State battled the whole game and I respect them a lot for that. It made this game a lot more exciting.”
On the pitching side of things, Lauren Soles went the distance for the Lobos to improve her record to 9-5 on the season. She only allowed the Broncos to score in three of her seven innings. She finished the game with four strikeouts and allowed five runs off 10 hits.
“She had to throw all she had at Boise because they had a lot of really good at-bats. They put some pressure on her but she and the team got some really big outs when we needed them.”
In the fifth inning, the Lobos and Broncos experienced an hour and 17-minute weather delay, due to lightning in the Albuquerque area. The Lobos had two outs in the top of the fifth and a strike on a Boise State batter when the umpires and game management staff made the decision for the delay.
New Mexico pounded out nine hits on the day with a 3-for-4 performance coming from Heimburg. Franc and Rimmer each went 2-for-3 while Gallucci and Erickson each had one hit. Rimmer led the team with two RBIs.
The Lobos improve to 27-23 on the season which is now 11 more win than last year’s win total of 16. In the Mountain West, New Mexico improves to 11-9. The Lobos will look for its first Mountain West sweep of the season tomorrow as they take on Boise State at noon MT. Live stats and video will be available on GoLobos.com.
“It doesn’t matter what they did the day before or what their record is. I am looking forward to seeing what are girls can do tomorrow and getting our first sweep of the season.”