Lively goes the distance in final game as a Lobo

SAN DIEGO – Tristin Lively finished what he started on Friday night at Tony Gwynn Stadium, authoring his first collegiate complete game in his final career start in New Mexico’s 4-3 Mountain West Conference defeat against host San Diego State.

The fifth-year senior right-hander threw a career-high 120 pitches in his final turn in a Lobo uniform, finishing a memorable career with one of his grittiest efforts since debuting in the spring of 2019. In his eight innings pitched Friday, Lively allowed four runs on seven hits, with four strikeouts and a pair of walks.

Both teams were finished scoring by the end of the fifth inning, as Lively traded zeros with the San Diego State pitching staff for the remainder of the game. The Lobo offense managed just one baserunner over the final four innings, as the Aztecs backed a strong start by TJ Fondtain to secure the win.

SDSU improved to 23-28 overall on the season and 17-11 in conference play, moving into first place in the Mountain West standings with one game left on the regular-season schedule. The Lobos slipped to 26-24 and 13-16 in conference games.

Justin Olson hit his 13th home run of the season and was 2-for-4, and Sean Stephens turned in his second straight two-hit game while making five catches in center field. The Lobos were limited to just seven hits for the second night in-a-row, and struck out 13 times while leaving five runners on base.

Poncho Ruiz went 3-for-3 with two RBIs to lead the SDSU offense, which also managed just seven hits against Lively. Fondtain allowed three runs on six hits with nine strikeouts and one walk in six innings of work, before turning the ball over to four relievers to finish the game. Kelena Sauer earned his team-leading 12th save of the year, retiring the Lobos in order in the ninth.

The Aztecs got on the board first, when Shaun Montoya led off the first with a single and worked his way around the bases eventually scoring on a sacrifice fly by Ruiz.

The Lobos got the run back in the top of the second, which started with a ringing double off the wall by Reed Spenrath. Olson singled to put runners on the corners, and Konner Kinkade made the score 1-1 with an RBI-single.

Lively settled into a groove, retiring 8 of 9 hitters after Montoya’s leadoff single and putting up zeros in the second and third innings. After a leadoff walk drawn by Kyle Smith in the top of the fourth, Olson unloaded his 13th home run of the season with a loud line drive over the fence in right to make the score 3-1.

Ruiz and Fondtain hit back-to-back doubles to start the fourth, and an ensuing RBI-single from Xavier Gonzalez pulled the game even at 3-3. A leadoff walk in the fifth came back to sting Lively, as Charlie Rhee came around to score on a pop-up double by Ruiz that landed near the right-field foul line.

The bloop hit proved to be the final run-scoring at-bat of the game for either team, as both offenses struggled to generate momentum in the late innings. Lively allowed just two singles across his final three innings of work, pitching well to contact and receiving strong support from his defense. Kinkade fielded a ball on the left side of second base and threw across his body on the run to get Gonzalez by half a step and take away a hit. Devon Dixon then helped negate an eighth-inning single by Ruiz, snagging a line drive off the bat of Fondtain and firing a laser of a throw to first in time to double off the runner.

Lively’s final career out was a routine fly ball off the bat of Cade Miller to Stephens in center, as the senior from Las Cruces completed the gutsy performance. It was the first complete game of the season by a Lobo pitcher, and it was the third time this year that Lively went at least eight innings in a game.

Overall in his five seasons as a Lobo, Lively pitched in 43 games making 36 starts, while logging 178 1/3 innings and striking out 159 hitters. Lively recorded a dozen wins in his collegiate career, including six in 2023 which was far and away his best season. Lively had career highs of 77 1/3 innings pitched, 62 strikeouts, and 13 starts in his final spring with the Lobos.

LOBO NOTES: New Mexico is now 84-131 all-time against SDSU and is 37-72 in games played in San Diego…the Aztecs lead the season series between the teams 5-0…Olson’s home run was the 24th of his collegiate career and his 17th in a Lobo uniform…it was the Lobos’ 86th home run of the season, breaking a tie with the 1999 team for the third-most in UNM single-season history…Ashby’s double was the 60th of his collegiate career.

UP NEXT: The 2023 season wraps up on Saturday morning with a noon (MDT) first pitch set for the final game of the year between the teams.