FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Sophomore Chelsea Johnson exploded at the plate for the University of New Mexico Lobos, pacing them to a doubleheader sweep of Colorado State in a rainy morning in Fort Collins. The Lobos took game one 14-3 in six innings and claimed game two 7-6.
Johnson was the highlight of the day, going 7-for-8 with 10 RBIs off of a grand slam and a two-run homer. She also scored three times in game one.
After not getting much offense going last weekend, the Lobos pounded out 10 hits in game one to score 14 runs.
“The offense came out to play today,” said head coach Erica Beach. “Chelsea was incredible today. She came in clutch for us and that has been what we needed.
“We got production all over the lineup, especially in game one. We had some really great offensive production. And our defense really kept us in the games. We did some really good things today.”
The Lobos started out behind 2-0 but answered with two runs in the top of the second. The bases were loaded after a walk and back-to-back singles. Junior Jasmine Casados scored on a wild pitch. Sophomore Chelsea Johnson scored the second run of the inning on freshman Jade Gray’s ground out to short.
Colorado State took the lead in the bottom of the inning with one run but once again the Lobos answered and took the lead for good after a three run third.
Freshman Cheyenne Smith walked and scored on a two-out double to right from Casados. Johnson then unleashed a bomb, taking a 5-3 lead.
The Rams started to threaten in the third off starter Tess McPherson but the Lobos made a pitching change, going to senior Lisa Rodrigues who came in and shut down the Rams.
The Lobos added a run in the fifth as they took advantage of a Ram error. Casados reached on an error by the first baseman which scored Smith.
Eight more runs came across in the sixth to help the Lobos end the game early. The Lobos went through the entire lineup which was highlighted by two home runs, including a grand slam from Johnson, her second of the season and Gray’s first career homer as a Lobo.
Rodrigues shut down the Rams in the sixth for the Lobos to end the game on the mercy rule.
Rodrigues collected the win in the circle to improve to 2-0. She allowed no runs off just two hits in four innings of work while striking out two. McPherson allowed three runs off six hits in two inning of work.
At the plate, Johnson led the way with a 4-for-4 effort, including two home runs for six RBIs. Gray went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored.
New Mexico started out behind in game two 2-0 but put five runs up in the third to take a 5-2 lead. Gray drew a leadoff walk and then freshman Brooke Breland came up and smashed her first career home run over the left field wall. Johnson had an RBI single to bring home junior Michala Erickson and the inning was capped off with an Rodrigues RBI single to third.
Senior Lauren Soles held her own for the next three innings in the circle which allowed the Lobos to put another insurance run in the fifth which came on another Johnson RBI single.
The Rams figured out Soles so the Lobos put in Krissy Fortner. The Rams put up two runs to cut the Lobos lead to 6-4. Fortner got out the jam which allowed the Lobos to extend the lead to 7-4 in the seventh off Johnson’s third RBI single of the game.
But the rain came and forced the game to be delayed exactly three hours. The last pitch before the delay was thrown at 2:46 and the first pitch after the delay was at 5:46.
“It’s really hard to come out when you are at their place and on their time. But we fought hard and it took us a minute to kind of get into it. I wish we could of done more offensively but anytime you have to wait three hours to finish an inning is pretty difficult. You can’t use that as an excuse because the other team had to wait too.”
The one run in the seventh was all for the Lobos and the Rams weren’t going down easy this time as they answered with a one-out two-run homer to cut the deficit to one, Lobos lead 7-6. Soles was put back in to finish off the game and recorded the final two outs for the win.
At the plate, Johnson was the key hitter, going 3-for-4 with four RBIs. Breland had two RBIs off her home run.
Soles claimed the win in the circle to improve to 4-6 on the season. She allowed two runs off just three hits in 5.1 innings of work. She struck out three and walked four. Fortner allowed four runs off four hits in 1.2 innings of work while striking out four.
The Lobos improved to 20-17 on the season and are now 5-6 in the Mountain West. The Rams and the Lobos will meet again tomorrow, if weather allows, at 1 p.m. MT. For updates, follow @UNMSoftball on Twitter.