ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico baseball team rallied from an 11-5 deficit thanks to nine unanswered runs to take a 14-11 lead on No. 6 Texas Tech heading into the sixth inning, but unfortunately for the Lobos, the Red Raiders scored 16 unanswered runs of their own and UNM fell 27-15 Wednesday afternoon to split the two-game set at Santa Ana Star Field.
“Sometimes you’re the windshield and sometimes you’re the bug,” UNM coach Ray Birmingham said. “That’s just the way it goes sometimes.”
The 12-run loss came a day after UNM (24-17-1) handed Texas Tech (34-11) its worst loss of the season in a 16-5 victory Tuesday night.
While the bats returned Wednesday as the Lobos have scored 10-plus runs for the fifth-straight game – the first time UNM has done that since 2013 – UNM struggled to get Texas Tech out, particularly in the sixth (seven runs allowed) and seventh (eight runs allowed) innings.
UNM was led at the plate by Carl Stajduhar as the junior went 3-for-3 with a home run (team-high 11th), three runs and a career-best seven RBI to give him a team-high 51 on the season and 170 in his career as he moved into eighth place on the UNM all-time list.
Jared Mang continued his hot hitting as well as he went 3-for-5 with a home run (sixth) and three runs, Hayden Schilling went 3-for-6 with a double and an RBI, Daniel Herrera was 3-for-6 with an RBI, Danny Collier was 2-for-6 with two RBI, two runs and a double and Luis Gonzalez went 2-for-4 with a double, RBI and three runs.
Chad Smith picked up the loss in relief, though eight pitchers threw for the Lobos with all of them but Brian Coffey (pitched a perfect ninth inning) giving up a run.
The Lobos return to action with a key Mountain West series starting 7 p.m. (MT) Friday as the first-place Lobos (14-2-1) travel to take on second-place San Diego State (13-5) at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The entire three-game series will be broadcast with Robert Portnoy providing play-by-play on ESPN Radio 101.7 The TEAM and on the 101.7 The TEAM “app.”