Lobos take series from BYU with convincing 12-1 win
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico baseball team bounced back in an emphatic way from their 18-9 defeat in the nightcap of Friday’s doubleheader as the Lobos came back on Saturday afternoon and left little doubt in what was a 12-1 win over BYU.
The convincing win clinched the four-game weekend series for the Lobos (8-3) as they claimed three-of-four. It also gave the Lobos a 5-1 season record against the Cougars (6-6) with the other two wins coming on Opening Weekend at the Sanderson Ford Collegiate Baseball Classic.
In Saturday’s game, the Lobos got a tremendous starting pitching performance from senior right-hander Nathaniel Garley. Slated to be the Lobos’ opening day starter against No. 25 Oregon State, Garley made his season debut three weeks later against BYU after overcoming a health-related issue.
Limited to a predetermined pitch-count of about 60, Garley went just five pitches over that and gave the Lobos everything they could have hoped for in his first appearance of the season as he efficiently worked 5.0 innings. In his time on the mound, Garley kept the Cougars off-balance and allowed just two hits, one run, walked one and struck out six.
T3 | Garley ends the top of the third with his 6th K of the day! #GoLobos
DUE UP:
Schneider
Watari
Landers pic.twitter.com/iipWaPrsL7— UNM Baseball (@UNMLoboBaseball) February 29, 2020
Garley was backed up from the bullpen by Jack Murano and Miguel Reyes Jr. Murano handled the next three innings after Garley and surrendered just one hit and struck out two. Reyes Jr. took the ninth and needed just seven pitches to retire the Cougars in order and put the finishing touches on the Lobo win.
Offensively, the Lobos began supporting Garley in the second inning as Ediberto Reyes drilled a RBI double that hit just at the top of the wall in left-centerfield to score Harry Fullerton and give the Lobos a 1-0 lead.
B2 | Ediberto Reyes puts the Lobos on the board with an RBI double off the wall in left center to score Fullerton from first! We lead 1-0 over BYU. #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/iN8aRubugY
— UNM Baseball (@UNMLoboBaseball) February 29, 2020
In the next trip to the plate, the Lobos struck for four runs on four hits and also took advantage of a BYU error and a balk.
Justin Watari got things started with a one-out single to centerfield. Kyle Landers then laced a single up the middle. An infield single by Kyler Castillo followed and loaded the bases with one out. After quickly falling behind 0-2 in the count, Connor Mang battled back and ended up driving a ball out to right-centerfield to score Watari from third. The Cougars then committed a throwing error in Fullerton’s at-bat, plating Landers. Reyes then singled to right field for his second RBI in as many innings.
On Reyes’ single to right, Castillo scored and Fullerton advanced to third. With Kemuel Thomas-Rivera at the plate, Reyes took off for second base and induced a balk by the newly entered BYU reliver, scoring Fullerton.
The Cougars would get their lone run of the game in the top of the fifth on a leadoff home run off Garley. Undeterred from that, Garley got three-straight groundballs to end the inning.
In the bottom half, the Lobos got that run back, plus one with a two-run fifth. In that inning, Reyes picked up a painful RBI as he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Later in the inning, the Lobos scored the second run on a double play.
An inning later, the Lobos kept the offense rolling with a two-run double off the wall in straightaway centerfield off the bat of Mang. The Lobos also added a run in the seventh and two more in the eighth to bring their total to 12.
B6 | Connor Mang cranks a two-out double off the wall to score two and we lead BYU 9-1! #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/e2jTKAOxzC
— UNM Baseball (@UNMLoboBaseball) February 29, 2020
In the seventh, the run was pushed across on a bases loaded walk to Landers. In the eighth, the Lobos got a RBI double to left-centerfield by Fullerton and a RBI single through the right side from Jarrett Gonzalez.
The Lobos will now prepare for their first mid-week action of the season as they are set to travel to Phoenix, Ariz. to take on Grand Canyon University for a two-game series. The series is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3 and concluded on Wednesday, March 4. First-pitch for the second game is scheduled for 2 p.m.