Lobo Baseball 2024 Schedule Unveiled
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – New Mexico Baseball’s full slate of spring games for the 2024 season has been unveiled, Head Coach Tod Brown announced on Wednesday.
The 54-game schedule, including 30 Mountain West Conference games, features competitive names from the outset of the season on Feb. 16 through the regular-season finale on May 18. In that span, the Lobos will face five different teams that reached NCAA Regionals last spring – Oregon State, Texas Tech, Arizona, San Jose State and Sam Houston State – with 27 games against nine opponents that ranked in the Top 150 in the nation in last season’s final RPI rankings.
UNM will play 30 games at Santa Ana Star Field in Albuquerque and 24 games on the road throughout the regular season.
It’s here… The 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗟𝗢𝗕𝗢 𝗕𝗔𝗦𝗘𝗕𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗦𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗗𝗨𝗟𝗘 is out now! ⬇️
📰Release: https://t.co/lcF6qis5JF
🗓️Printable Schedule: https://t.co/4cYwNQU2fV#GoLobos pic.twitter.com/iMRB92GVbL— UNM Baseball (@UNMLoboBaseball) December 6, 2023
The Lobos are coming off a 2023 season that saw them post their best winning percentage in a full season since 2017 (.510), finishing fifth in the Mountain West standings (26-25, 13-17 MW) but leading the league in a variety of categories including team batting average (.328), runs (441), RBI (411), triples (24), home runs (87), slugging % (.559) and on-base % (.406). In Brown’s second season at the helm in Albuquerque, UNM also improved from a 9.06 to 5.95 ERA as a squad — the program’s lowest in a single season since 2016 — while averaging only 3.20 walks per nine innings, its fewest since 2014.
A LOOK AT THE SCHEDULE
For the seventh season in a row, UNM is opening the season at the Sanderson Ford Collegiate Baseball Classic in Surprise, Ariz., set for matchups with Oregon State (Feb. 16), Minnesota (Feb. 18) and CSU Bakersfield (Feb. 17, Feb 19) at Surprise Stadium.
The Lobos then return to Albuquerque for 12 home games in a row at Santa Ana Star Field, opening things up with a four-game series with South Dakota State Feb. 22-24 (DH on Feb. 24), followed by another four-game swing with Hofstra March 1-3 (DH on March 2). UNM’s first midweek matchup of the season with Texas Tech – who the Lobos walked off with a ninth-inning Jake Holland homer for an 11-10 win at home in their last meeting – is set for March 5.
Mountain West play begins March 8-10 with a home series against UNLV, with UNM’s first true road games of the season the following week with a midweek matchup at Arizona State (March 12) and a three-game conference swing with Nevada in Reno (March 15-17).
The first of four Rio Grande Rivalry matchups with New Mexico State will take place on March 19 at home before UNM plays host to defending MW Champions San Jose State (March 22-24). They’ll face the Aggies twice more in Las Cruces (April 9, April 30) before concluding the four-game season series at home on May 7.After a MW series with San Diego State on the road March 28-30, the Lobos get four consecutives matchups with 2023 NCAA Regional qualifiers, set for a midweek matchup with Arizona in Tucson on April 2 before returning home to host 2023 WAC Champions Sam Houston State for a three-game set April 5-7 – UNM’s final multi-game nonconference series of the season.
Up next, another four-game homestand includes UNM’s only MW series with Fresno State April 12-14 before a matchup with D-II CSU-Pueblo on April 16. The Lobos then travel to Air Force – another MW opponent they’ll only face in one series – for a three-game series April 19-21 before heading down to Lubbock, Texas for their second and final meeting with Texas Tech April 23.Rematches with San Diego State at home (April 26-28), UNLV on the road (May 3-5), Nevada at home (May 10-12) and San Jose State on the road (May 16-18) comprise the remainder of UNM’s regular season, with Senior Day set for May 12 against the Wolf Pack.
Should the Lobos finish among the Top Four in the Mountain West standings, they’ll earn a berth to the MWC Championships May 23-25, hosted this year by San Diego State. The winner earns the conference’s automatic berth into the NCAA Championships.