Lobos Take Game Two to Even Series at Fresno State

FRESNO, Calif. – The University of New Mexico baseball team evened up the road series with Fresno State with a game two 4-3 victory on Saturday night at Pete Beiden Field.

Three Lobos went 2-for-4 as Kamron Willman, Braydon Runion and Willie Cano each had a stellar night at the plate. Willman also notched his second home run of the season. On the mound, Brian McBroom earned his second win of the season (2-0) as he came in to relieve starting pitcher Brett Russell, allowing no runs and just two hits in 3.0 innings pitched. Closer Aaron Makil notched his second save of the season, as he struck out three through final two hitless innings.

After opening the game with two scoreless innings, the Lobos struck first as they brought home three runs in the top of the third. New Mexico opened the inning with four straight hits. Chase Weissenborn opened the third with a triple, before Sean Stephens worked a full count and singled through the left side to drive in Weissenborn.

From there, Jeffrey David launched a double to center field to bring around Stephens. David then scored on a single to left field by Lenny Junior Ashby to give the Lobos a 3-0 lead.

In the bottom of the inning, the Bulldogs plated their first run as Andrew Kachel stole home. Starting pitcher Russell ended the inning with his first strikeout swinging of the night.

After a scoreless fourth inning, the Lobos extended their lead to 4-1 in the fifth inning as Willman lifted a ball over left center for his second home run of the season.

Fresno State responded with a couple runs in the bottom of the frame to make the score 4-3.

Thanks to outstanding shutdown pitching by both McBroom and Makil through the final four innings, the score didn’t change for the rest of the game.

McBroom pitched three innings and allowed just two hits during that time. He allowed just one runner to advance but he forced five groundouts and struck out two, coming in clutch for the Lobos with some great middle relief work.

Makil pitched the final two shutdown innings. He struck out three and forced two three up-three down innings, aided by an outstanding diving catch by centerfielder David to end the eighth. Makil earned the save and lead the Lobos to the 4-3 victory over Fresno State in game two of the road series.

New Mexico’s record improves to 14-17 overall and 6-8 in Mountain West play. Fresno State falls to 14-16 overall and 8-6 in MW action.

The Lobos and Bulldogs will play the rubber match game three on Sunday with a first pitch time set for 2:05 p.m. (MT) in Fresno, Calif.

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