Seniors Shine on Senior Day in 11-7 Win
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — UNM only has three seniors, but they certainly made the most of their day. Daniel Herrera hit his first home run of the season, Danny Collier went 2-for-3 as the designated hitter and James Harrington bridged the gap on the mound from starter Cody Dye to closer Christian Tripp as New Mexico picked up a 11-7 Senior Day win over UC Davis, evening the series at 1-1.
The Lobos improved to 19-33-1 on the season, and UC Davis fell to 16-33. The final game of the series, and of the season for both teams, will be 1 p.m. at Santa Ana Star Field. The game will be on Stadium and the Mountain West Network, and Robert Portnoy will have the call on ESPN Radio 101.7 The Team.
Herrera got UNM off to the right foot in the second inning. The switch-hitting senior, who was honored prior to the game with Collier and Harrington, came up as a lefty and one pitch after hammering a ball foul that would have been long gone hammered the next pitch down the line for his first home run of the season, and the second of his career.
UCD took the lead in the top of the third in an inning where really no runs should have scored. The only earned run in the inning reached to start the frame when Justin Watari battled the sun and lost, with the ball landing for an infield double. UNM followed with a costly error in the frame that allowed two more runs to score, but the Lobos, despite trailing 3-1 after three exploded for three runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
Here are the highlights of today’s big Lobo win 11-7 on Senior Day #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/CKky9JYcPY
— UNM Baseball (@UNMLoboBaseball) May 19, 2018
In the fourth Jeff Deimling and Collier opened with singles and scored on a Derek Marshall double. Marshall eventually scored on a Brayden Merritt as UNM took the lead for good 4-3. In the fifth Deimling had a two-run double, part of a four-hit day for him. Derek Marshall eventually drove him in with a sacrifice fly. In the sixth, Deimling hammered a three-run homer to put UNM up 10-4.
Harrington’s time came in the eighth when he retired the final batter of the frame with the score 10-6 in relief of Cody Dye, successfully bridging the gap to closer Christian Tripp. Tripp entered in the ninth with UNM up 11-6 when a three-base throwing error allowed Deimling to score from first. After loading the bases, he got a double play and a strikeout to finish it off.
The Lobos banged out 19 hits in the game, the fifth straight game with at least 15 hits. Cody Dye threw 99 pitches in improving to 5-6 to finish as the team leader in wins.
NOTES: Deimling had four hits in a game for the third time in his last five … Hayden Schilling’s hitting streak continued to seven with a 3-for-4 day, and he is now 14 for his last 20.