ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico baseball team picked up its 20th win of the season on Tuesday night as the Lobos edged out visiting Grand Canyon University by a score of 9-8 in the first game of a two-game mid-week series out at Santa Ana Star Field.
The 20th win of the season for the Lobos (20-23-1) matches their win total from a year ago, and is done this year with 10 regular season games still on the schedule.
In the game on Tuesday night, the bats were rolling early for the Lobos. After falling behind 1-0 in the top of the second, the Lobos responded in the bottom half with a run of their own to tie the game at 1-all. That run scored as Tanner Baker beat out the back half of a potential double play to score Jeff Deimling, who doubled off the top of the wall in right-centerfield to lead off the inning.
Following that at-bat, Adam Adkins had an infield single and Ediberto Reyes drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases with one out. Tyler Kelly then reached first on a fielder’s choice allowing Baker to score. On that same play, the throw from the Lopes (24-19) second baseman was errant allowing Adkins to score from second and make it a 3-1 game.
Check out some of the highlights from our 9-8 win over Grand Canyon! #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/v9e1xWYwlz
— UNM Baseball (@UNMLoboBaseball) May 1, 2019
An inning later, Hayden Schilling doubled down the left field line to score Jared Mang and make it a 4-1 game. In the fourth, the Lobo offense added two more runs to make it 6-1, UNM as Connor Mang hit a two-RBI single to score Justin Watari and Reyes.
The Lopes played a run in the top of the fifth, but the Lobos got that run back in the bottom half in the strangest of ways as Reyes hit a popup on the left side of the infield that invoked the infield fly rule. With Reyes out on the play, the Lopes shortstop did not make the catch and Schilling trotted home to once more give the Lobos a five-run lead at 7-2.
Trouble struck for the Lobos in the top of the sixth inning as the Lopes scored five runs on just one hit while also taking advantage of a pair of walks and two errors by the Lobos. The five-run sixth knotted the game at 7-all and unfortunately saddled Lobo starter Tristin Lively with a no-decision.
The freshman right-hander was on a 75-pitch limit and was solid in 4.0 innings of work. Lively would allow only three hits and one earned run while striking out four batters in his start.
After not scoring in the bottom of the sixth, the Lobos pushed across a pair of runs in the seventh to take a 9-7 lead. Both runs in the inning scored with two outs. The first was Adkins scoring on a clutch RBI single by Watari to centerfield. J. Mang then followed that up with double into the left-centerfield gap to score Watari from first. The RBI double was J. Mang’s 22nd of the season, tying him for the national lead, and it proved to be a very important insurance run.
In the eighth, a leadoff double by the Lopes came around to score to make it a one-run game at 9-8. The Lobos would get out of the inning without any further damage and carried that slim lead into the ninth.
That’s when the Lobos called upon their closer Malachi Emond. Emond made quick work of the first batter he faced and then appeared to have the second out in a row, but a fielding error allowed the batter to reach. Two batters later, the Lopes had runners on the corners with two outs. A steal of second put the potential go-ahead run in scoring position, but Emond was able to nail down his eighth save of the season by striking out the batter at the plate for the final out.
The Lobos and Lopes will conclude their brief mid-week series on Wednesday afternoon. First-pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. out at Santa Ana Star Field.