MANHATTAN, Kan. — The University of New Mexico baseball team could’ve easily left Manhattan with a pair of wins but couldn’t hold onto a lead in game one or find a timely hit in game two as the Lobos were swept by Kansas State 12-10 and 3-2 Tuesday at Toiton Family Stadium.
It’s been part of a tough road schedule for the Lobos as they have played 22 of their 37 games away from Santa Ana Star Field with 14 of those road contests against teams that were at the time ranked in the top 30.
“This schedule is hard to go through,” UNM coach Ray Birmingham said. “It is all at the highest order. The breaks will start going our way, though. We as Lobos will always keep fighting.”
UNM (20-16-1) used an eight-run second inning in game one to take an early 8-1 advantage and held a 9-4 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh before the Wildcats (19-18) scored four runs in both the seventh and eighth innings to take a 12-9 lead and held on for the 12-10 victory.
Base on balls hurt the Lobo pitching staff in the first game as six of the seven KSU batters UNM walked eventually scored in the contest.
Justin Slaten picked up the loss in relief in game one, going 1.1 innings and giving up five runs on two hits with three strikeouts and three walks. Carson Schneider got the start and was solid, going six innings and giving up four runs on five hits with no strikeouts and two walks in his longest outing since coming back from injury.
Jared Mang paced UNM at the plate, going 3-for-5 with an RBI and two runs while Carl Stajduhar blasted a three-run homer to cap the eight-run second inning, Luis Gonzalez hit a solo home run late in the game to make it 9-4 and Justin Watari hit a go-ahead two-run double in the third inning to make it 3-1.
In the second game, the Lobos trailed for much of the game after Kansas State scored a run in the second on four consecutive walks by UNM pitching. The Lobos briefly tied it in the top of the fourth when Hayden Schilling hit his second home run of the season – a line drive over the right field wall – but Kansas State scored two more in the bottom of the fourth and made it hold up to come away with the victory.
UNM got within one in the seventh inning with an RBI single from Mang and had runners on second and third with two outs in the eighth inning – but pinch-hitter Austin Bell was unlucky as he laced a ball right at the KSU second baseman to end the threat for the Lobos.
While eight Lobos had a hit in the contest, nobody had more than one.
Brandon Langan picked up the loss in relief, going 2.1 innings and giving up two runs on five hits with no strikeouts and one walk. Drew Gillespie was solid in relief for UNM, going 3.1 hitless innings with three strikeouts and three walks.
UNM returns home start a three-game series against UNLV 6:30 p.m. Friday at Santa Ana Star Field. Listen to the entire three-game series with play-by-play from Robert Portnoy on ESPN Albuquerque 101.7 The TEAM.
NOTES
- Stajduhar’s home run in the first game was the 34th of his career, tying him with Jeff Grady (2002-05) for No. 8 on the UNM all-time list.
- In starting game two, Carl Stajduhar started his 145th consecutive game – moving him to second on the UNM all-time list. Mitch Garver (2010-13) holds the UNM record with 181 consecutive games started.