ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — There’s no place like home.
That was the feeling for 10th-year head coach Ray Birmingham after his University of New Mexico baseball team defeated UNLV 13-4 Friday night to open the three-game series with the Rebels at Santa Ana Star Field.
The Lobos are fresh off the last of a grueling non-conference road schedule at Kansas State on Tuesday, and add that with their Mountain West road schedule, and UNM played 23 of their first 37 games away from Albuquerque with 14 of those games against ranked opponents.
However, the Lobos started a final stretch where 12 of their final 18 games will be at the comforts of Santa Ana Star Field – starting with Friday night’s outburst that saw first-place UNM (21-16-1 overall, 12-2-1 Mountain West) rack up 17 hits and 13 runs against the Rebels (14-26, 7-12).
“It’s just good to be home,” Birmingham said. “We enjoy the challenge of our schedule, but it’s been a grind. I think everyone is just glad to be back and hopefully we can get rolling a bit.”
The Lobos trailed 2-1 heading into the bottom of the third inning before Carl Stajduhar came up with a pair on and hit an opposite field home run to right to give UNM a 4-2 advantage – a lead the Lobos wouldn’t relinquish.
UNLV scored an unearned run off UNM starter Tyler Stevens in the top of the fifth to cut the Lobo lead to one before UNM gave itself some room in the bottom of the inning.
With one out, Jack Zoellner walked, Stajduhar was hit by a pitch and Danny Collier walked to load the bases for Beau Capanna. The freshman came up clutch, hitting a two-run single up the middle off the glove of the diving UNLV shortstop to push the UNM lead to 6-3. Daniel Herrera followed with a sacrifice fly to increase the lead to 7-3.
Capanna finished 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI as he’s raised his average to .317.
“This is just how baseball works sometimes,” Capanna said. “Sometimes you go in a slump. I started off the season hot, I went into a slump and now it’s starting to come back. I’m starting to see the ball well.”
UNM added another run in the sixth and scored five more in the eighth to pull away for the 13-4 victory.
Jared Mang continued his hot hitting as he went 4-for-5 (with the only out being a lineout to third base) and scored four runs, Luis Gonzalez finished 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs, Collier went 2-for-3 with two runs and Zoellner went 1-for-3 with a pair of walks and a two-run double.
Stevens picked up the win to improve to 6-3 on the season, going seven innings and giving up three runs (two earned) on 10 hits with five strikeouts and one walk. Freshman Nathaniel Garley was solid out of the bullpen, giving up a run on one hit with two strikeouts in two innings of work.
The teams play again 2 p.m. Saturday at Santa Ana Star Field. The Lobos will be going with senior right-hander Johnathon Tripp (2-1, 4.67 ERA) while UNLV will be throwing left-hander Tevita Gerber (3-5, 7.88 ERA). Listen to the game with play-by-play from Robert Portnoy on ESPN Albuquerque 101.7 The TEAM.
NOTES
- Former Lobo All-American D.J. Peterson (now in Triple A with the Tacoma Rainiers in the Seattle Mariners organization) is scheduled to throw the first pitch Saturday prior to the game.
- With his walk in the first inning, Jack Zoellner moved into fourth place in UNM history in walks with 110. It also extended his reached base streak to 18 games.
- With his five strikeouts, Stevens is now tied for ninth on the UNM all-time list with 188 (tied with Chris Cooper, 2000-01).
- The win for Stevens gives him 19 in his career, tying him for ninth on the UNM all-time wins list.
- Stajduhar’s home run was the 35th career, moving him into eighth by himself on the Lobo all-time list.