Lobo Baseball – at Peccole Park, Reno, Nevada
When: TFriday – 5 p.m. (MT); Saturday – 2 p.m. (MT); Sunday – 2 p.m. (MT)
Who: Nevada Wolf Pack
GoLobos.com: Live stats, box score, live stream and postgame recap
Mountain West Standings
| Place | School | MW record | Overall record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Air Force | 2-0 | 8-3 |
| 2 | Fresno State | 2-1 | 11-2 |
| 2 | UNLV | 2-1 | 5-6 |
| 4 | San José St. | 1-2 | 5-8 |
| 5 | San Diego St. | 1-2 | 2-10 |
| 6 | New Mexico | 0-0 |
6-5 |
| 7 | Nevada | 0-2 |
4-8 |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico baseball team begins Mountain West action this weekend with a series at the Nevada Wolf Pack. UNM is the last team in the league to play a conference series this season.
The Lobos are in the midst of a rough patch, having lost four straight games. Nevada, meanwhile, is also struggling at the moment, losers of three straight. However, the Wolf Pack have played just one home game this season: a 14-2 beatdown of Santa Clara on Tuesday, March 1. The bats haven’t been the problem for the Lobos during their slide. They are 15th in the nation with a .326 batting average, and they are fourth in the country with a .440 on-base percentage. However, their pitching staff has surrendered 56 runs over the last 28 innings.
UNM has had a lot of success in Reno over the years. Last season the Lobos went just 2-7 against the MW regular season champs, but both those wins came at Peccole Park, including a 14-4, seven-inning win in the conference tournament. The Lobos are 9-5 there all-time after two other wins and two losses in the MW tournament.
Against Nevada: The Lobos won just two of seven match ups with the Wolf Pack last season, but both wins came in Reno: 3-1 on March 13 and 14-4 on May 21 in the MW Tournament.
Series Record: 11-12
Home: 3-6; Away: 7-3; Neutral: 1-3
Up Next: UNM remains on the road to play two midweek games at Grand Canyon next week.
• SCOUTING NEVADA … The Wolf Pack do not resemble last season’s Mountain West regular season champions. They return conference Player of the Year Trenton Brooks and Pitcher of the Year Christian Stolo, but gone are most of the supporting pieces However, Brooks, a two-way player, is hitting just .194 in 31 at bats and owns an 8.10 ERA in 10.0 innings. Stolo is 0-3, but has pitched pretty well and has a 3.32 ERA.
Leading the way for Nevada offensively is junior college transfer and shortstop Miles Mastrobuoni. He’s hitting a cool .486. Redshirt sophomore TJ Friedl, who did not play last season, is second on the squad at .370, and senior third baseman Bryce Greager is at .326.
The starting pitching behind Stolo has also been a problem for Nevada. Senior Zach Wilkins is 2-1 and more strikeouts (20) than innings pitched (19.2) — he actually leads the team in innings after starting Wednesday’s loss at Sacramento State — but he has a 6.86 ERA thanks to a .329 batting average against. The bullpen does not yet have a save, but junior transfer Ty Pennington has been excellent in 6.2 innings. He has six strikeouts, no walks and has allowed just one earned run.
• WALK THIS WAY … UNM has been walking all over its competition so far this season. The Lobos are fourth in the nation with 79 walks in their first 11 games. UNM’s 17 free passes at Hawai’i on Feb. 21 tied a Mountain West record and were the most in program history. Jack Zoellner (13) and Dalton Bowers (11) both rank among the NCAA leaders in terms of walks drawn. With just about a fifth of the season played, UNM is already a quarter of the way to its single-season walk record of 321 set in 1987.
• FOLLOW MY LEAD … The Lobos have had their leadoff man reach in 43 of 98 innings, good for an inning-starting OBP of .439.
• ATTENDANCE UPDATE … Through six home games the Lobos are averaging 1,018 fans, which is 56th in the country.