Lobos Can’t Secure Sweep, Fall to SJSU in Finale
Box Score | 2019 Baseball Stats
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In what turned out to be one of the most bizarre games in the history of Santa Ana Star Field, and possibly the history of UNM baseball, the Lobos fell behind 15-4 in the fourth inning, and somehow got the tying run into the on-deck circle in a bizarre 22-18 loss to San Jose State that lasted four hours and 52 minutes, believed to be the longest 9-inning game in UNM history. UNM still won the opening Mountain West series for both clubs.
The loss dropped the Lobos to 8-4 overall, ending UNM’s six-game winning streak. UNM lost its first conference game to fall to 2-1. San Jose State improved to 7-4 overall and 1-2 in the Mountain West.
The game was equal parts bizarre and epic. Some of the numbers bordered on ridiculous:
*The game lasted 4:52, the longest 9-inning game in UNM history. The previous longest is believed to be 4:29 on April 26, 2016 when UNM lost 27-15 to Texas Tech on a very windy day at Santa Ana Star Field.
*There were 39 players used, including 15 pitchers. San Jose State used seven and UNM used eight.
*Those 15 pitchers threw a combined 434 pitches. Of those, 249 were thrown for strikes, and there were 185 were balls.
*Combined there were 40 runs, 42 hits, three errors, nine stolen bases, 20 left on base, three hit batters and 114 plate appearances.
Things looked good early for UNM as the Lobos bolted to a 3-0 lead after two innings. In the first inning, Justin Watari tripled to lead the game off when his long fly ball that got carried by a steady 20+ MPH wind that was blowing straight out to right center was nearly caught in right field, but the ball popped loose when Connor Kinoshi crashed into the fence, dislodging the ball.
He was still there when Hayden Schilling was hit by a pitch. Schilling was then picked off, but just like on Friday, Schilling beat the throw down to second, and Watari scored on the back end of a double steal. In the second, Jeff Deimling hit a monster two-run home run over the batters eye in dead center some 413-feet away for a 3-0 lead.
But from there it fell apart. Brian Coffey allowed three runs in the third before giving way to Drew Gillespie with the go-ahead run on second. Gillespie’s first pitch squeaked into left for a run-scoring single, and San Jose State never trailed again.
Up 5-4 after Schilling walked, stole second again, went to third on an error and scored on a Tyler Kelly single, the Spartans seemingly took control with eight runs in the fourth. They scored all of those off three Lobo pitchers, getting just four hits in the inning. The big hits were a two-run triple by Blake Berry and a three-run homer by Kellen Strahm.
The Spartans scratched out two more runs and at the seventh-inning stretch, it was 15-4 San Jose State, but UNM didn’t give up, and didn’t die, giving San Jose State a run for its money. The first eight Lobos reached in the seventh to get UNM back in it. Justin Watari singled and went to second on the first of four balks in the inning. Schilling singled and Jared Mang doubled in a run to make it 15-5. Tanner Baker singled on the next pitch to make it 15-7, and Tyler Kelly’s infield single put runners on first and second, and forced a pitching change. Connor Mang walked to load the bases, and then a balk forced in a run to make it 15-8.
Deimling then hit a ball some 400-feet off the facing of the Davalos Center in deep left-center to make it 15-11. Ediberto Reyes then walked, the eighth straight Lobo to reach before pinch hitter Adam Atkins flied out. Watari walked, and another balk moved runners to second and third. After Schilling flew out, San Jose State changed pitchers to have Josh Zanger face Jared Mang with the tying run in the on-deck circle, but on the first pitch, a fourth balk of the inning made it 15-12.
San Jose State got three runs back off Jack White and Malachi Emond to go back up 18-12, but UNM kept at it. Kelly reached on a dropped fly ball and Connor Mang singled. Deimling then got a career-best sixth RBI when he singled up the middle to make it 18-13. Reyes then singled to make it 18-14.
Entering the ninth, Schilling came in to pitch, and was the victim of some unfortunate circumstances. His first batter Richard Kabasinskas hit a soft liner to short, but the ball had such English on it that it spun past Kelly for an odd single on what should have been a routine out. After a strikeout and single, the Spartans got a run on a double steal to make it 19-14. Another single made it 20-14, and Troy Viola got a wind-aided home run just over the 338-foot marker down the line to make it 22-14.
❄️ With Ice in his Veins… ❄️
Zack Doak homers on his first collegiate pitch he sees.
📷 @UNMLoboBaseballpic.twitter.com/sy0xcRojbj
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) March 4, 2019
Seemingly down and out, UNM mounted one more charge. Schilling walked and Jared Mang doubled him to third. After Schilling scored on a ground out to make it 22-15, Kelly again singled, to make it 22-16. With two down, UNM had defensive replacement Zack Doak come up for his first collegiate at bat. Doak wasted no time, turning on the first pitch he saw and depositing it through the wind and off Dreamstyle Arena on a bounce some 440-feet away. That made it 22-18, and brought Reyes up, who lined out to deep left center to end the game.
NOTES: Jonathan Clark was awarded the win with 1.2 innings of scoreless relief … on Saturday night, Augsburg University, a Division III school, played a four-overtime hockey game that was shorter in terms of time by four minutes, than this game.