ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico baseball team may be down two key players, but the 2017 Mountain West regular-season champion Lobos didn’t let it slow them down as a complete-game gem from Tyler Stevens and strong clutch hitting helped UNM past Nevada 7-2 in the opening round of the Mountain West Tournament on Thursday at Santa Ana Star Field.
The Lobos are down MW Tony Gwynn Co-Player of the Year Jack Zoellner due to injury and preseason All-American Luis Gonzalez, but UNM recovered from a 2-0 deficit after the first inning by scoring seven unanswered runs and secured it with a dominant effort by Stevens over the final eight innings.
“We needed a performance like that tonight,” UNM coach Ray Birmingham said of Stevens. “That was the Tyler of old we saw not that long ago. He was able to limit walks, hit his spots and worked ahead in the count.”
Stevens tossed his second complete game of the year, giving up two runs (both in the first on a Mike Echavia home run in the first) seven hits with eight strikeouts and two walks. The junior is the 34th pitcher in Mountain West Tournament history to toss a complete game. He also eclipsed the 100-strikeout mark for the first time in his career (has 102).
“The defense was great behind me today,” Stevens said. “Vigil and Mang made some plays in the outfield, the infield played well and the sticks came alive. We came together.”
The Lobos (30-25-1) trailed Nevada (19-35) 2-0 heading into the fourth inning before a Jared Mang single, a Carl Stajduhar walk and a wild pitch put runners on second and third with no outs. Danny Collier and Hayden Schilling followed with back-to-back sacrifice flies to tie the game, 2-2.
But the Lobos weren’t done yet as Matt Villalobos doubled and Andre Vigil followed with an RBI single to center to give UNM the lead for good, 3-2.
The Lobos added a run in the fifth on a Collier sac fly and three more in the sixth – highlighted by a two-run triple to right by Stajduhar that nearly left the yard and hit the wall.
Mang finished 2-for-3 with two runs for the Lobos and Villalobos was 2-for-4 with two doubles and a run while Stajduhar, Collier and Schilling each drove in two.
The top-seeded Lobos advance to the play No. 2 San Diego State 7 p.m. Friday night to see who advances to the title game of the tournament. Listen to the game with play-by-play from Robert Portnoy on ESPN Radio 101.7 The TEAM and on the 101.7 The TEAM “app.”
Live streaming of the 2017 MW Baseball Championship is available through the Mountain West Network (MWN) on TheMW.com and CampusInsiders.com. All live broadcasts are free of charge. In addition, fans can watch live video on their mobile devices for free with the MW mobile app. Links to live stats, game highlights, recaps and box scores will also be available on the Mountain West Championship Central page on TheMW.com. The Mountain West application can be downloaded from the Apple App Store for iPhones and iPads, and from Google Play for Android phones and tablets.