ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico baseball team’s undefeated start in Mountain West play looked in jeopardy as San Jose State jumped out to an 8-2 advantage on the Lobos after the top of the fourth inning.
However, the advantage to having a potent lineup is that no deficit is seemingly too much to overcome – and that was the case Saturday afternoon.
The Lobos scored 14 unanswered runs and their bullpen shut down the Spartan lineup over the final five innings as UNM won its sixth straight 16-8 at Santa Ana Star Field.
“First, we don’t make that comeback without our bullpen today,” UNM coach Ray Birmingham said. “Those guys were huge, particularly because we had an injury to our usual Saturday starter and everyone was put into a tough spot. With that, we started being a bit more patient and found our stride at the plate.”
The Lobos (10-3 overall, 5-0 Mountain West) scored three in the fourth (highlighted by a Jared Mang two-run double) and had already scored one in the sixth inning to cut the SJSU (6-7, 2-3) lead to 8-6 with runners on second and third, one out and pinch-hitter Justin Watari coming up.
The left-handed hitting freshman came up clutch as on a 1-1 count he sliced a ball down the third base line for a two-run single to tie the game for the Lobos at 8-8.
UNM took the lead for good when Danny Collier hit an RBI ground-rule double to right-center field to make it 9-8 and the Lobos tacked on another on a Stajduhar RBI single to take a two-run lead.
The Lobos gave themselves some breathing room with a six-run seventh inning – highlighted by a two-run double by Beau Capanna, an RBI triple by Luis Gonzalez and a two-run single by Jack Zoellner to make it 16-8.
That was more than enough for the Lobo bullpen as Austin Isenhart, Chad Smith and Brandon Langan combined to throw five scoreless innings of relief and allowed just three hits. Isenhart picked up the win, going 2.2 innings and giving up no runs on three hits with one strikeout to move to 2-0 on the season and lowering his ERA to 2.53.
Capanna, who increased his hit streak to eight games, had his first career four-hit game by going 4-for-5 with two doubles, three RBI and a run to increase his average to .429. Gonzalez went 3-for-5 with a triple, double, RBI and three runs to increase his average to .509 while Mang was 3-for-3 with four runs, a double and an RBI to put him above .300 at .306.
The series concludes 1 p.m. Sunday with UNM going with the left-hander Gonzalez (1-1, 7.04 ERA) while San Jose State will start left-hander Graham Gonzalez (0-0, 6.75 ERA). Listen to the game live with play-by-play from Scott Galetti on ESPN Radio 101.7 The TEAM streamed at www.1017theteam.com and on the TuneIn Radio app.
NOTES
- The Lobos’ batting average and runs per game in conference play actually dropped after racking up 18 hits and 16 runs as they are now batting .484 (105-for-207) and averaging 17.2 runs per contest in Mountain West action.
- The Lobos have won eight games in a row at Santa Ana Star Field, dating back to last season.
- UNM has won nine in a row against San Jose State at Santa Ana Star Field.
- The four UNM errors committed Saturday were a season-high for the Lobos.
- The seven stolen bases allowed by UNM was a season-high as well.
- Without a home run on Saturday, it snapped the Lobos’ six-game streak with a home run and it’s only the third time in 13 games UNM hasn’t gone deep.
- Prior to the Lobos’ six-game winning streak, they were hitting .254 as a team. UNM has raised its batting average over 100 points to .355 during the streak.