ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – For the second straight weekend, the Lobos put together another Mountain West series victory, claiming a doubleheader sweep of Colorado State Sunday afternoon. The Lobos defeated the Rams 7-3 in game one and upended the Rams in game two, 8-6. The Lobos are now 18-13 on the season and 4-2 in conference.
The day started out with Lobo starter Jensen Main coming out with some fire in the circle. She kept CSU scoreless until the third inning. CSU put together two runs but the Lobos responded with four in the bottom of the third.
“Jensen set a tone for us in game one,” said head coach Erica Beach. “She came out firing and got some really big outs for us and just kind of let our offense settle in instead of them thinking they had to do everything up front, and that helped a lot.”
In the third, Shelbie Franc reached on a throwing error and scored on a throwing error. Michala Erickson came up big with a triple to right field, which scored two. She also scored on the play, after CSU threw the ball to second.
“Shelbie was obviously incredible this weekend, especially today. Shelbie really set the tone for us offensively with literally always getting on base. She was a tough batter to face today.”
After a scoreless fourth, the Rams put together a run in the fifth but again the Lobos answered , scoring three runs. Franc led off with a single and scored on Jasmine Casados’ double to left. Casados then scored as Erickson singled to left. Two batters later, Lauren Wilmert punched out a single to center to score Erickson.
CSU started to really get to Main, as the Rams loaded the bases. But Krissy Fortner came in with two outs and got out of the bases loaded jam. Fortner came back in the seventh and put the Rams down in order, earning her fourth save on the year and upping the UNM career save record to 15.
Main claimed the victory, improving to 6-4 on the season. She allowed three runs, off four hits, while walking five and striking out three. Fortner picked up two strikeouts in 1.1 innings of work.
In game two, the Lobos bats came out hot, scoring three runs in the first and two runs in the second. Franc led off with a single and scored on Casados’ single to right center. Casados and Ericksons both scored later off Jade Gray’s single up the middle.
In the second, D’Andra DeFlora smashed the ball over the left field wall, her third home run on the year. The second run came as Casados single to left field, scoring Franc.
CSU put up four runs in the fourth off Lobo starter Tess McPherson. Coach Beach made a pitching change again, going to Fortner for the second time. CSU put up another run, tying the game at 5-5 before Fortner and the Lobos got out of the inning.
The Lobos responded with a run in the bottom of the fourth, another RBI single from Casados to score France from second, which gave the Lobos the lead.
“Jasmine was just hitting the ball really hard all weekend and it was really nice to have runners on for her and for her to come through.”
CSU tied the game up for the second time but the Lobos used the sixth to take the lead for good, scoring two runs. DeFlora led off with a double to left center and later scored on Erickson’s single up the middle to take the lead. The second run came on Chelsea Johnson’s infield single, scoring Casados from third.
Fortner shut down the Rams in order in the top of the seventh to claim her fourth win on the year. She is now 4-2. She allowed two runs, one earned, off five hits, while striking out four.
“Krissy threw incredible, closing out game one,” said Beach. “We really liked what we saw so we made sure she was ready for game two as far as coming in for relief. She absolutely shut them down in that first game and, they came in and made some adjustments on her and Colorado State did a really good job of adjusting from one game to another with Krissy.”
On the day, Casados and Franc each had five hits each. Franc scored five runs, while Casados scored four. Casados finished the day with four RBIs.
The Lobos will get back to action next weekend, as they play host to Nevada. First game will be on Friday at 5 p.m. Saturday’s game will go off at 1 p.m., while Sunday’s game will be played at noon.