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Reed Spenrath hit a game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth Friday night, but Air Force rallied to beat New Mexico 9-7 in 10 innings.

Falcons outlast Lobos in 10 innings Friday

by Evan O'Kelly

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Outlasting host New Mexico in a 10-inning affair Friday night at Santa Ana Star Field, visiting Air Force claimed a 9-7 victory in the teams’ opening Mountain West Conference game of the 2023 season.

Reed Spenrath hit a game-tying, two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, but the Falcons spoiled the big swing of the bat by loading the bases in the 10th and plating two runs to seal the win. AFA improved to 5-9 on the season and is now 1-0 in conference play, while UNM dropped to 9-4 overall and 0-1 in league action.



Spenrath finished 3-for-5 with three runs scored, and Jake Holland also homered while driving in three runs. Dylan Ditzenberger was 4-for-5 in the leadoff spot for UNM, as that trio accounted for nine of the team’s 14 hits in the game.


Sam Kulasingam, Chase Spencer, Trayden Tamiya, and Landon Boyd each had a pair of hits for the visitors, who tallied 12 knocks in the opening game of the series.

New Mexico played from behind the entire game, as Air Force jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first and never trailed. Air Force’s big first inning came with two outs, as a pair of walks and doubles by Spencer and Tamiya pushed the visitors ahead 3-0 off the bat.

Ditzenberger didn’t waste any time extending his reached-base streak to 27 games, drawing a leadoff walk in the first. Air Force starter Doyle Gehring bounced back, retiring the next three hitters including a pair of strikeouts to put up a zero. Gehring wound up going six innings in the no-decision, striking out nine to go against a pair of walks and allowing four runs on seven hits.


UNM starter Riley Egloff shook off the big first inning, and cruised through the Falcons in order in the second while capping the frame with his first strikeout of the day.

Spenrath led off the bottom of the second with a single, and Holland sneaked his fifth long ball of the year just over the right-field wall to get UNM on the board.

The Falcons responded in the top of the third, when Jake Greiving hit a one-out double off the wall in center and Spencer drove him in with a base hit. Air Force struck again in the fourth, with a sacrifice fly off the bat of Greiving making the score 5-2.

Ditzenberger punched a one-out double into the left-field corner in the bottom of the fifth, and Lenny Junior Ashby sent a laser into the gap in right-center to help UNM get a run back and cut the deficit to 5-3.



Egloff finished the top of the sixth with a routine groundout to Devon Dixon at second base, lifting him to the 200-inning plateau in his collegiate career. The right hander battled through six frames on Friday, allowing five runs – four earned – on six hits with three strikeouts and four walks.


Holland struck again in the bottom of the sixth, splitting the gap in left-center to score Spenrath from second and pull the Lobos within a run down 5-4.

The Lobos loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh, on hits by Ditzenberger and Jeffrey David and a two-out walk drawn by Braydon Runion. Holland proceeded to work a full count against reliever Sawyer Hawks, before smashing a line drive deep to left field that hung up for Matt Thompson to snag.

UNM reliever Wil Bannister got out of a jam in the top of the eighth with a strikeout, but he needed a big boost from his battery mate to complete the play. The third strike in the dirt skipped away from Holland, but he pounced on the ball and lunged forward in the nick of time to tag out Aerik Joe trying to score from third on the play.

That set up a game-tying swing of the bat by Deylan Pigford in the bottom of the inning, as the UNM newcomer crushed his first home run in a Lobo uniform over the fence in right field to even the score at 5-5.


Jay Thomason answered Pigford’s home run with a two-run shot in the top of the ninth, once again nudging Air Force in front. The Lobos had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the ninth after Spenrath’s game-tying home run, as an ensuing walk to Holland, stolen base by pinch runner Sean Stephens, and fly ball by Konner Kinkade put the winning run 90 feet away. Falcon reliever Duke Benge got Chase Weissenborn to fly out to deep right-center field however, forcing the game into extra innings.

Joe led off the 10th with a single, and back-to-back bunt hits by Landon Boyd and Blake Covin loaded the bases with no outs. The Falcons’s first run of the inning came at the cost of a double play, before Kulasingam delivered the final blow with a two-out, RBI-single to center field to make the score 9-7.

David smashed a one-out single to bring the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the 10th, but the Falcons secured the long-winded victory with a double play to begin their conference slate with a win.

Brian McBroom threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief, while Bannister allowed four runs on five hits with two strikeouts and no walks in 2 1/3 innings of work. Justin Still recorded the final out for UNM with a strikeout in the 10th.

LOBO NOTES: UNM is now 149-57 all-time against Air Force and holds a home record of 86-21 against the Falcons…Ditzenberger also extended his hitting streak to nine games with a third-inning single…Egloff threw 81 2/3 innings during his two-year career at Yavapai College in 2019-20…Friday was the Lobos’ second extra inning game of the season, after their 12-inning victory over Minnesota on Feb. 20…Holland’s home run was the 12th of his collegiate career…Pigford’s home run was the 13th of his collegiate career…Spenrath’s home run was his fifth of the season and the 29th of his collegiate career…Stephens’ stolen base was the 29th of his collegiate career, and his seventh as a Lobo.

UP NEXT: The teams reconvene on Saturday night in Game 2 of the series, with a rescheduled start time of 6 p.m. to avoid a forecast of high winds during the originally-scheduled start time of 2 p.m.