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Jake Holland homered twice in Fridays 14-4 win over St. Bonaventure.

Lobos win 5th straight, top Bonnies 14-4 Friday

by Evan O'Kelly

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Jake Holland and Reed Spenrath combined for three home runs and eight RBIs on Friday afternoon at Santa Ana Star Field, propelling the New Mexico baseball team to a 14-4 run-rule victory over visiting St. Bonaventure in the opening game of the series.

Holland homered twice and drove in five runs, while Spenrath reached base five times, including his team-leading fourth home run of the year. The big offensive output backed senior ace Riley Egloff, who won his third straight game with a season-high seven innings of work.


Head Coach Tod Brown Postgame Interview


Deylan Pigford was 3-for-5 at the plate, and had the winning hit in the bottom of the eighth as he nudged the Lobos ahead by double figures. UNM won its fifth consecutive game, and improved to 7-1 on the 2023 season.

St. Bonaventure lost its fifth straight game to start the season, but gave the Lobos a scare with a four-run second inning to jump ahead. Jackson DeJohn’s first home run of the season was a two-run shot during the rally, and Mark Darakjy and Artin Biageyian followed with RBIs to spot the visitors the early advantage.

Egloff shook off a laborious second inning, and put up five straight zeroes after that. The right hander allowed four runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and no walks in his seven innings of work.



Devon Dixon helped Egloff to a clean top of the first inning, making a diving back-hand stop and throwing out Adam Rankie by a half step in the defensive play of the day. It was 1 of 6 plays made by Dixon on the day, who was stellar both at second base and at shortstop in the late innings.



Lenny Junior Ashby extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a knock in the bottom of the first, but SBU starter Bryce Hediger ended the frame with a strikeout.

The Bonnies struck in the top of the second inning, when Thomas Grilli punched a one-out double into the left-field corner and DeJohn followed with a home run to left-center. Darakjy delivered an RBI-triple to center, and Biageyian executed a squeeze bunt to perfection to make the score 4-0.

New Mexico responded in the bottom of the third, with an RBI-single off the bat of Ashby getting his team on the board. Spenrath followed with a three-run home run to left field to tie the score, and Dixon delivered an RBI-single to give the Lobos their first lead of the day.

Braydon Runion led off the fifth with a single, and an ensuing walk issued to Spenrath spelled the end of the line for Hediger. The right-hander allowed five runs on eight hits with one strikeout and three walks in his four innings of work.

Holland’s second home run of the year was a no-doubter to left-center, with his towering three-run drive crashing off the top of The Pit. UNM added two more on an RBI-single by Dylan Ditzenberger and an RBI-double by Jeffrey David to make the score 11-4.

Egloff struck out a pair of hitters in a shutdown top of the sixth inning, and the Lobos added on in the bottom of the frame. Spenrath drew another walk, and Holland blasted a long home run this time over the hitter’s eye in center field to make the score 13-4.



Egloff ended his outing retiring the final seven hitters he faced, with a clean seventh inning. The two-time reigning Mountain West Pitcher of the Week delivered a first-pitch strike to the first 10 hitters he faced on Friday, and threw 93 total pitches in his outing.

St. Bonaventure reliever Tripp Breen kept the Lobos quiet in the bottom of the seventh, before UNM reliever Adolfo Iturralde did the same in the top of the eighth to put up a zero in his lone inning of work. Spenrath punched a leadoff double into the right-field corner in the bottom of the eighth, before Pigford ended the game early with an RBI knock into center field.

New Mexico, which entered the day ranked No. 9 in the NCAA in scoring at 11.2 runs per game, used 16 hits to bolster its scoring average. The sixth-ranked Lobo defense also improved its fielding percentage to .993, and its NCAA-leading team batting average to .376.

Dixon finished the game 2-for-4 with two RBIs, Ashby went 2-for-5, and Ditzenberger, who entered the day leading the NCAA in runs per game at 2.29, scored twice.

SBU used four relievers over the final three-plus innings of work, and the pitching staff combined to strike out three while issuing five walks in the game.

LOBO NOTES: Friday was the first-ever meeting between the teams…Ditzenberger extended his reached-base streak to 22 games…Iturralde made it three straight appearances without allowing a run and five straight appearances dating back to last season without allowing an earned run…it was Holland’s first collegiate multi-homer game…his two home runs Friday upped his collegiate career total to nine…Spenrath’s home run was the 28th of his collegiate career.

UP NEXT: The series continues on Saturday, with a doubleheader scheduled for noon at Santa Ana Star Field.