ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Tied 4-4 after eight, a three-run ninth inning for No. 7 Texas Tech, with the winning run scoring on a wild pitch, spelled a 7-4 defeat for The University of New Mexico Lobos in a battle of two of the West’s top teams.
The game was tight throughout, with New Mexico twice coming from two runs down to tie. Down 2-0 after two innings, UNM scored single runs in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth. In the third, Dalton Bowers doubled before coming home on a Luis Gonzalez single. Gonzalez pitched five innings, allowing eight hits and four runs, all earned.
“We played well, but that is a veteran team that gets it,” said head coach Ray Birmingham. “They pitch, they hit, they play defense, but we did a good job tonight. We hit the ball hard, but just couldn’t get enough done.”
UNM then tied it in the fourth when Carl Stajduhar hit an opposite field home run to right, but Tech took the lead right back on a long home run by Tyler Neslony in the top of the fifth to regain its two-run lead. However, UNM came back again with a run in the fifth when Bowers doubled again and scored on a Jared Holley ground out, and then an Andre Vigil sacrifice fly in the sixth tied it.
UNM’s bullpen kept UNM in it, as Drew Bridges went 1.1 scoreless and Jacob Nelson went 0.2 scoreless before Victor Sanchez pitched a scoreless eighth. In the ninth however he ran into trouble as the first two batters singled to put runners at the corners with no outs. Needing a strikeout , he got one, but the ball bounced away for a wild pitch and a 5-4 Tech lead, with the runner from first crossing all the way to third. Alex Estrella came in, and a single through the drawn-in infield made it 6-4 before an error extended the inning. Tanner Gardner then singled in a run to make it 7-4, but Estrella caught him napping and got an unconventional 9-3-1-3 putout to end the inning.
UNM then hit two balls hard in the ninth, but went down in order to end the game.
Sanchez was saddled with the loss, dropping to 0-4, although his eight saves leads the team, while Tech closer Hayden Howard improved to 6-1. Texas Tech, ranked as high as No. 7, improves to 30-9, and is now 19-2 in its last 21 games, and they have won 10 straight. UNM dropped to 26-12.
Game two of the midweek two-game series is Wednesday at 1 p.m. Ty Damron takes the hill for Tech, while James Harrington will pitch for UNM. The game will be streamed via GoLobos.com and shown locally on uPublic 26 in Albuquerque. IT can also be heard on ESPN Radio 101.7 The TEAM, with the live audio stream at www.1017theteam.com
NOTES: Chris DeVito, after reaching base via hit or walk the first 36 games of the season, went 0-for-4 and now hasn’t reached in two straight … Stajduhar, the Mountain West Player of the Week, went 2-for-3 with six total bases … Jacob Nelson wiggled out of a bases loaded jam in the seventh to keep his ERA perfect at 0.00.