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Lobos begin Lone Star swing at Incarnate Word

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NEW MEXICO
LOBOS

12-4
INCARNATE WORD
CARDINALS
9-5

Tuesday, March 10 | 5:30 p.m. (MT) | Wednesday, March 11 | 5:30 p.m. (MT)
Sullivan Field | San Antonio, Texas
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO | UNM NOTES | UIW NOTES

Leading Off
Perhaps the most difficult stretch of games this season, at least in the non-conference portion of their schedule, is on tap for the University of New Mexico baseball team as the Lobos are set to embark on a five-game road trip this week within the Lone Star State. The first two games on the trip will be a two-game mid-week series at Incarnate Word. The final three games will be a weekend series at Texas.

The Lobos enter this stiff test of road games on a hot streak, winning their last four games. Over the weekend, the Lobos swept a competitive Hofstra club and did so with three-straight walk-offs. A big factor to the Lobos winning those games was the offense. The Lobos scored at least 11 runs in all three games and totaled 50 hits, raising their team batting average from .266 to .299.

In terms of pitching for the mid-week series at Incarnate Word, the Lobos have not announced any official starting pitchers, but based on last week’s mid-week pitching rotation, Tristin Lively and Will Armbruester figure to be in th running for either game. Livey’s last action was his mid-week start at Grand Canyon. In that start, Lively got a no-decision and pitched 5.0 innings with five strikeouts. Armbruester, who made the start last Wednesday also pitched over the weekend making a relief appearance on Saturday.

Offensively, the Lobos enter play with a .299 batting average (165-for-552). The leading hitter is Kyler Castillo at .418 (28-for-67). Harry Fullerton and Ediberto Reyes are tied for the team-lead in home runs with two. Kyle Landers leads the team in RBIs with 15 while four other Lobos have at least 10 RBIs as well.Scouting Incarnate Word
Incarnate Word enters play this week 9-5 overall. The Cardinals are coming off a weekend in which they played their first conference games of the season on the road at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Cardinals would lose two-of-three in the series, dropping the opener 3-2 and the rubber game, 7-0. In the middle game of the series, the Cardinals shutout the Islanders 5-0 for their second shutout of the season.

Entering this mid-week series, the Cardinals are hitting .273 as a team (129-for-473) and are led by Lee Thomas at .396 (19-for-48). Ryan Flores is the team-leader in RBIs with 14, but four other Cardinals have at least 10 RBIs as well. Drew Minter is leading the team in home runs with two.

On the mound, the Cardinals have a team ERA of 4.35 entering this week’s action. The Cardinals have not officially announced a starting pitcher for either game against the Lobos, but an educated guess would tab Michael Garza for one of the starts. Garza has got the ball for each of the Cardinals last two mid-week games. He took the loss at then No. 18-ranked Texas A&M, but won his last start against Stephen F. Austin.

In the dugout, Incarnate Word is led by Ryan Shotzberger, who is in his 1st season at the helm of the Cardinals. Prior to becoming the head coach at UIW, Shotzberger was an assistant coach at TCU (2007-11) and Houston (2012-19). In his time as an assistant, Shotzberger has been a part of 13 conference championships with eight regular season title and five conference tournaments. He has also been a part of nine NCAA Regional Tournament appearances, three NCAA Super Regional appearances and one trip to the College World Series.