ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The ball was jumping out of Santa Ana Star Field on a windy Saturday afternoon and The University of New Mexico baseball team took full advantage as it blasted six home runs – including three homers from Carl Stajduhar and two from Jack Zoellner – to even up the three-game series with Air Force with a 17-10 victory.
While the Lobos (27-20-1 overall, 17-4-1 Mountain West) scored 10-plus runs for the ninth time in their last 11 games, UNM coach Ray Birmingham was pleased with his pitching to be able to hold off a hot-hitting Air Force team that had one eight straight considering the wind was blowing 20-plus mph straight out of Santa Ana Star Field.
“The pitchers did a great job today in a hot yard,” Birmingham said. “It’s tough to pitch on a day like today.”
Johnathon Tripp picked up the win to move to 5-1, going 6.2 innings and giving up nine runs (six earned) on 10 hits with three strikeouts and one walk. Freshman Nathaniel Garley snagged his first career save, going the final 2.1 innings and surrendering a run on two hits with three strikeouts and a walk.
UNM jumped out in front of Air Force (24-21, 11-14) with two runs on the first coming on a Stajduhar sac fly and a deep Zoellner home run to right.
Air Force tied it in the second with two runs before a Justin Watari RBI single in the second followed by a two-run opposite field homer by Luis Gonzalez gave the Lobos a 5-2 advantage.
UNM increased the lead in the third with Stajduhar leading off the inning with a home run, Beau Capanna hitting a sacrifice fly, Hayden Schilling smacking a run-scoring triple and scoring on a wild pitch to increase the lead to 9-2.
Stajduhar made it 10-2 with a home run in the fourth inning, but like Friday’s game where Air Force rallied from a 12-5 deficit to win 18-14 – the Falcons didn’t go down without a fight. Air Force scored four in the sixth (UNM scored two more in the sixth on back-to-back Stajduhar and Zoellner homers) and three more in the seventh to cut the UNM lead to 12-9.
UNM answered with a four-run seventh inning as Zoellner and Danny Collier each came up with two-out, two-run singles to give the Lobos a comfortable 16-9 lead and cruised from there.
Zoellner went a perfect 5-for-5 (the second time he’s had five hits in a game this season against Air Force) with two home runs, four RBI and four runs, Stajduhar went 3-for-4 with three home runs and four RBI, Collier went 2-for-5 with two RBI and a run and Watari was 2-for-3 with an RBI and three runs.
The rubber match for the series is set for 1 p.m. Sunday at Santa Ana Star Field. 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.”
GAME NOTES
- The three home runs by Carl Stajduhar on Saturday gives him 42 in his career as he passed D.J. Peterson and tied Daniel Stovall the No. 3 spot on the UNM all-time home run list. The record is 53 by Aaron Sisk (1998-2000).
- Jack Zoellner scored four runs today to move into 10th-place on the Lobo all-time list with 177.
- Zoellner played in his 209th career game Saturday, moving him into 10th place all-time in Lobo history.