ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Like Thursday evening’s contest, the University of New Mexico baseball team dug itself an early hole in Friday’s game against Missouri State.
And just like Thursday’s 17-8 victory, the Lobos rallied back in a big way.
UNM scored nine unanswered runs, punctuated with a Jared Mang home run in the eighth inning, and defeated the Bears for the second consecutive night – this time by a score of 9-5 at Santa Ana Star Field in a matchup of top-40 RPI teams.
The Lobos (20-13-1), ranked 38th in the latest RPI, trailed 4-0 heading into the third inning before an RBI double to left by Mang and an RBI groundout by Carl Stajduhar cut the MSU (21-13) lead in half at 4-2.
UNM scratched one across in the fourth inning on a Danny Collier RBI single to left to cut the deficit to 4-3 before the Lobos took the lead for good in the fifth.
Stajduhar was hit by a pitch with one out to get things going for the Lobos in the fifth before one out later Andrew Pratt walked and both advanced to third and second, respectively, on a wild pitch.
That’s when Hayden Schilling hustled out a two-out, infield single in the hole on the left side to tie the game 4-4. A wild pitch allowed the go-ahead run to score before an RBI single to right by Beau Capanna gave the Lobos a 6-4 advantage.
UNM added two more in the sixth on a Stajduhar RBI double and a Jack Zoellner RBI single to make it 8-4 before Mang’s blast in the eighth inning made it 9-4 (MSU scored a run in the ninth to make the final 9-5).
It continued the hot last few weeks for Mang as in his last 15 games the sophomore is hitting .429 (27-for-63) with three home runs, six doubles, two triples, 25 RBI and 20 runs with a hit in 12 of those 15 games.
“He’s really fun to watch right now,” UNM coach Ray Birmingham said of Mang. “He’s starting to scratch the surface of his talent. Hayden Schilling (who is 8-for-17 in his last five games) is also doing a great job for us. … Even though we weren’t real sharp pitching it tonight, we’re still playing better overall than we have been. We still have things to improve, but we’re playing better.”
Tyler Stevens picked up the win for the Lobos, going 5.1 innings and giving up four runs on seven hits with six strikeouts and four walks. Once again, the Lobo bullpen was strong as Chad Smith, Carson Schneider, Justin Slaten and Christian Tripp in 3.2 innings of work combined to give up one run on three hits with five strikeouts and three walks.
Mang finished 2-for-5 with a home run, double, two RBI and two runs, Danny Collier was 2-for-5 with an RBI and a run, Schilling was 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI while Stajduhar was 1-for-3 with two RBI and two runs.
MSU starter Dylan Coleman got the loss, going 4.2 innings and giving up six runs on seven hits with one strikeout and four walks. Jack Duffy led the Bears at the plate, going 3-for-5 with two RBI and a run.
The Lobos and Bears play the series finale 12 p.m. Saturday at Santa Ana Star Field with Johnathon Tripp (2-0, 4.30 ERA) going for UNM and Doug Still (4-1, 2.74 ERA) going for MSU. Listen to the game with play-by-play from Robert Portnoy on ESPN Radio 101.7 The TEAM.