Lively stellar in blowout of Falcons
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Tristin Lively threw a career-high 8 1/3 shutout innings on Saturday night at Santa Ana Star Field, and the New Mexico offense took care of the rest in a 15-0 drubbing of Mountain West foe Air Force.
Lively earned his third victory of the season and the ninth of his career with the Lobos, striking out six and walking one while allowing just three hits in the masterful performance. “It feels amazing,” said Lively, who was coming off an outing last week in which he didn’t make it out of the second inning. “You just have to go back every day and continue to work. That’s what I try to do, and it paid off. It felt great to get out there and do my thing.”
Lively was backed by superb defense from the Lobos, specifically in the infield with Devon Dixon, Chase Weissenborn, and Dylan Ditzenberger combining to make 14 plays behind him. Dixon matched his collegiate career high with six assists at second base, and had some of the biggest defensive plays of the night. “We have a bunch of big-league fielders for sure,” Lively said. “Dev makes every play that he makes look easy, and that was on display tonight. It’s fantastic having all those guys make great plays.”
In addition to his four assists on the night, Weissenborn matched his career high in hits as he went 4-for-4 at the plate with three RBIs and a pair of runs scored. “I was struggling a bit with my swing, so I showed up early with Coach (Nate) Causey today to hit on the field and I made some adjustments,” Weissenborn said. “I started feeling comfortable. Once I got in the box, I was just trying to compete for my guys and do anything I could to bring home a win for the team. The main thing is to compete, see the ball up, and put a good swing on it.”
Deylan Pigford was 3-for-4 with three runs scored, and Jeffrey David and Braydon Runion had a pair of hits each. All nine Lobos in the lineup scored a run, while eight different players had hits and seven players had RBIs. New Mexico improved to 10-4 on the season with the victory, and claimed its first Mountain West win of the year to move its conference record to 1-1.
After winning the series opener 9-7 in 10 innings on Friday night, Air Force’s offense was silenced with just three hits on Saturday. The Falcons fell to 5-10 on the season and are also 1-1 in conference play.
New Mexico showed off the leather in the top of the first inning, with three infielders each making stellar plays. Dixon handled a sharply-hit ground ball up the middle and Reed Spenrath swiped up a short hop for the second out of the frame. Ditzenberger then laid out fully to his left to snag a sharp line drive and make it a 1-2-3 inning for Lively. “Hats off to Dixon,” Weissenborn said. “He makes all the hard plays look so easy, and he’s one of the most talented guys I’ve played with. It’s really fun knowing we have that weapon, and it’s a blast playing next to him.”
David, who entered the week ranked fifth in the NCAA in triples, added his fourth of the season in the bottom of the first before Lenny Junior Ashby plated him with a ground ball to make the score 1-0.
After another clean inning from Lively, the Lobos bolstered their advantage with a three-run second inning. Pigford legged out an infield single on a high chopper, and Weissenborn followed with an RBI-single into center field. Ditzenberger then extended his reached base streak to 28 games, rifling a triple into the right-field corner that made the score 4-0.
Lively retired the first seven hitters he faced, before Landon Boyd ended the drought with a one-out double to right field in the top of the third. The senior right-hander got out of the jam, before working around a two-out single by Jay Thomason in the next frame to make it four scoreless innings to start his outing. “It was unbelievable,” Weissenborn said on Lively’s performance Saturday. “It was fun to play behind him, and all of us were playing hard for him. To see him go out there with that performance was amazing. He had a great night.”
Just as he has done all season, Dixon took away yet another base hit with a smooth defensive play to end the fifth inning. The junior slid to his back-hand side on a sharp ground ball up the middle off the bat of Blake Covin, and fired a strong, off-balance throw to first to get him by a fraction of a step.
The big play came amid a string of 14 consecutive hitters that Lively retired, as he pitched well to contact through the middle innings and used his defense to put up zeroes into the ninth.
A sturdy 5-0 lead turned into a runaway victory in the eighth, as New Mexico scored 10 runs on six hits to ensure the win for Lively. The senior righty retired the first hitter in the ninth, but after allowing a single he was lifted throwing a career-high 115 pitches. Justin Still finished the game on the hill for the Lobos, preserving the shutout. “Every day I just try to attack the zone, and I felt like I was hitting my spots early,” Lively said. “Coach (Michael) Lopez was calling great pitches, and the defense was making great plays. I try to stay even keel throughout the entire game, and try not to get too high or low.”
Weissenborn had the final spectacular play of the night, adjusting mid-step on a deflected ball up the middle and making a bare-hand play to record the penultimate out of the game. “I was shaded up the middle a bit, and once I saw a little dribbler I made my first move to second,” Weissenborn said on the tricky play. “Then it went under his glove so it was a do or die. I just bare handed it and tried to get rid of it as quickly as possible.”
Air Force Starter Dylan Rogers allowed four runs on five hits with a strikeout and three walks in his four innings of work. Jake Sansing threw three effective innings for the Falcons, striking out three and limiting UNM to one run on four hits.
LOBO NOTES: UNM is now 150-57 all-time against Air Force and is 87-21 in home games against the Falcons…Ditzenberger also extended his hitting streak to 10 games with his second-inning triple…Lively’s previous career highs were eight innings pitched and 105 pitches…the eighth inning was UNM’s fourth 10-run inning this season.
AHEAD: The series concludes on Sunday with a noon first pitch at Santa Ana Star Field.