Lobos Fall to Sooners and Sun Devils Friday
TEMPE, Ariz.— The University of New Mexico Lobos opened up the weekend with a pair of games against ranked teams, and while the Lobos had some success, they ultimately fell to both No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 11/13 Arizona State, by scores of 8-0 (six innings) and 13-1 (five innings), respectively.
Izabella Owen had the only hit of the day, which came in the second game against ASU, but did lead to a run being scored.
The Lobos reached three times on walks and left four runners on base against the Sun Devils and three runners on base against the Sooners.
UNM used four pitchers on the day, with Emma Guindon getting the start in game one and Kiana Spencer getting the ball in game two. Ashlyn Roberts and Brianna Sanchez entered in relief in the second game, the first appearance for Sanchez on the season.
GAME ONE: OKLAHOMA
UNM was kept off the board by a trio of Sooner pitchers, with Oklahoma using Giselle Juarez, Shannon Saile and Olivia Rains. The Lobos did however earn a walk off of Saile, the first walk of the season allowed by the Sooner, and Rains, just her second walk of the season allowed.
The Sooners opened up the scoring in the top of the second with two runs on a double to left field and an infield single after the leadoff hitter reached base and stole second, but the Lobos were able to prevent further runs, leaving runners on second and third with a fly out to Howard in center for the third out.
Guindon sat down Oklahoma in order in the third with three fly balls to the outfield, although in the fourth the Sooners got to the right-handed pitcher, hitting two home runs with a solo home run by Jana Johns and a two-run home run by Jayda Coleman.
The Lobos had their first base runners reach in the bottom of the fourth with a walk by Andrea Howard, who was able to move into scoring position following a hit-by-pitch during Briana Martinez’s at-bat. However, the pair were stranded.
OU added three more runs in the top of the sixth on two singles up the middle and a double to right field to enforce the run rule before UNM got out of the inning with runners left on the corners.
Hathoot walked with one out in the bottom of the sixth for the third UNM runner to reach base but was left standing on first.
Guindon threw a complete game, allowing eight runs on 11 hits and struck out one and walked one in the loss.
GAME TWO: ARIZONA STATE
The Lobos got on the scoreboard in the top of the first before Arizona State took the lead in the bottom in the first with five runs and continued to add runs in the second, third and fourth innings for the run-rule.
In the top of the first, Cameryn O’Grady reached on an error by the first baseman and was able to move to second on a Howard walk. With two outs, Owen hit the ball back up the middle to score O’Grady from second.
Arizona State answered with five runs in the bottom of the inning on back-to-back home runs, first a three-run home run by Maddi Hackbarth followed by a home run by Alynah Torres. A walk, stolen base and single to left field scored the fifth run of the inning.
Roberts entered to pitch in the second inning and Kindra Hackbarth led off with a home run to center and the Sun Devils continued the scoring in the third with a solo home run to left.
Sydney Broderick was hit by a pitch with two outs in the fourth to give UNM its last baserunner in the game.
ASU capped the scoring with six runs in the fourth, starting with a single, a walk and a double to left that scored both runs, leading to Sanchez entering the circle in place of Roberts. Arizona State added four more runs after that before the third out was recorded.
Spencer was credited with the loss after pitching one inning and allowing five runs on four hits and two walks. Roberts pitched 2.0 innings with four hits, five runs and a walk allowed and Sanchez closed with one inning, allowing one hit and three runs while walking two batters.
The Lobos head to Grand Canyon on Saturday for two more games, the first being another game with Oklahoma at 11 a.m. MT and a game against Grand Canyon at 1:30 p.m. MT.