Lobos fall short in pitcher’s duel
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico baseball team came out on the short end of 5-4 game that was mostly a pitcher’s duel on Friday night against visiting Air Force out at Santa Ana Star Field.
Both starters pitched at least 6.0 innings with UNM starter Drew Gillespie pitching into the eighth inning. Gillespie was on the unfortunate side of the decision, however, as he otherwise turned in perhaps his best outing as a Lobo. The junior right-hander pitched a career-long 7.2 innings and struck out nine batters while walking none.
Extra-base hits were the undoing of Gillespie on Friday night as the Falcons (21-24, 10-3 MW) had five with three being home runs and the other two being doubles. Four of the five extra-base hits yielded runs for the Falcons.
The first of the extra-base hits for the Falcons came in the top of the first inning as Nic Ready doubled with two outs. Gillespie proceeded to get the next batter out to end the inning without any damage. In the bottom of the frame, the Lobos (20-25-1, 8-13-1 MW) scored the game’s first run on ground-rule double off the bat of Connor Mang, scoring Jared Mang.
Gillespie then went out and faced the minimum in the second and third innings and had retired the first two batters in the fourth before Ashton Easley hit a solo home run out to right field to knot the game up at 1-all.
An inning later, the Falcons took the lead on a leadoff solo home run to left field. In the sixth, the Falcons made it a 3-1 game as Easley drove home his second run on a ground-rule double to left-centerfield.
After that RBI double, Gillespie needed one pitch to get out of the inning. He carried that momentum into the seventh as he retired the side in order.
Now pitching longer in a game than he ever has in his career, Gillespie got the first out by registering his ninth strikeout of the game. That was followed by a single to left field. Gillespie then got the second out on a lineout to left field and was a strike away from getting out of the inning, but Ready took a pitch the other way with the wind and carried a two-run home run out to right field to suddenly make it a 5-1 Air Force lead.
The Lobos would get those two runs back in the bottom of the inning, however, and they came in dramatically clutch fashion. With two on and two outs, Brayden Merritt engaged in a lengthy at-bat against Air Force reliever Nathan Price. With the count full, Merritt just got enough of a pitch to foul off as it hit the turf. Initially, that swing was called a swing and miss for a strikeout and the final out of the inning. However, after the umpires came together to confer, the call was changed to a foul ball, giving Merritt new life in the at-bat.
Merritt did not waste any time as he doubled down the right field line to score Hayden Schilling and Tanner Baker, making the score now 5-3.
In the ninth, things got really interesting. Following a one-out single by J. Mang, Jeff Deimling came up two batters later and the Lobos down to their final out. Deimling then singled into right field, and on the play, the Falcons’ right fielder committed a fielding error as he let the ball go under his glove and all the way to the wall. That misplay allowed J. Mang to score from first and put Deimling on third representing the tying run.
The Falcons would wiggle off the hook, however, as a foul tip into the glove of the catcher was the final out of the game.
The second game of the series will be played on Saturday, May 4 at 2 p.m. out at Santa Ana Star Field.