Lobos drop series opener at San Diego State

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – The University of New Mexico baseball team lost the first game of their final regular season series on Thursday night as San Diego State beat UNM by a score of 8-0 at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
 
The loss for the Lobos (21-28-1, 9-16-1 MW) officially eliminated them from the upcoming Mountain West Tournament.
 
In Thursday night’s game, the Lobos ran up against a career-best effort by San Diego State starting pitcher Justin Goosen-Brown. The right-hander did not allow a hit until the third and went on to pitch a complete-game shutout. Goosen-Brown limited the Lobos to just four hits in the game and struck out five. Goosen-Brown also benefitted from three double plays.
 
Half of the Lobos’ hits came in the top of the ninth as Tanner Baker and Justin Watari each singled to lead off the inning. The hit in the ninth for Baker was his second in the game as he notched the Lobos’ first hit of the game in the third with a seeing-eye single through the left side.
 
For the Aztecs (32-21, 16-11 MW) only two of their eight runs in the game were earned. The Aztecs started their scoring in the third with a two-run inning. Single runs in the fourth and fifth combined with another two-spot in the sixth pushed their lead out to 6-0 through six innings. The Aztecs added two more runs in the eighth to bring the score to its final of 8-0.
 
The Lobos and Aztecs will play game two of their series on Friday night. First-pitch is slated for 7 p.m. (MT) and the Lobos will hand the ball to Justin Slaten for the start.