Lobos Begin Homestand with UTEP Tuesday
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The Lobos get a break from the road as UNM begins a four-game homestand with UTEP on Tuesday, with first pitch set for 3 p.m. While there won’t be streaming, live stats will be available and admission to the game is free.
UNM enters the game at 8-23, 1-2 in the Mountain West and is coming off of a conference series at San José State with UTEP 16-6 and 2-1 in CUSA and the Miners off since March 10 when they faced Middle Tennessee State in their Conference USA series opener.
Tuesday’s game will be just the second home game for UNM and the third meeting between the teams this season, with UTEP winning the first two 4-3 in eight innings and 4-2 in El Paso on Feb. 14.
SERIES HISTORY
The Lobos are 18-15 all-time against the Miners, and split the series the last time the two teams played in Albuquerque last year with the Lobos falling 2-1 in 11 innings in the first game and winning 8-4 in the second game.
FRESHMEN IMPACT
Nine freshmen have earned a spot in the starting lineup this season, with five freshmen (DeNae Vasquez-Dickson, Katherine Brunner, McKenna Guest, Hayden Luderer and Karly Smith) playing in more than half of the games.
Of the freshmen, Brunner has played in 30 games with 26 starts- 11 games at third, seven at second and eight as the designated player. Vasquez-Dickson has started in 23 games with 12 in left, six in center and five in right and played in 30 games, and Luderer with 12 starts and playing in 20 games with eight starts in center, three in right and one in left. Smith has played in 17 games with seven starts, six as the designated player and one in right. Gabrielle Briones has started in four games, two at third, one at second and one as the designated player, and Macie Andrews has started four games, all in left. McKenna Guest leads the Lobos’ pitching staff with 15 starts and 22 appearances and a team-high 84.1 innings, Brooke Umali has made one start and 10 appearances, throwing 14.1 innings and Kenzie Jones has appeared in seven games with one start and 8.0 innings.
Vasquez-Dickson has played in 96.8% of the games, 85.7% of the innings and started in 74.2% of the games. Brunner has played in 96.8% of the games, starting in 83.9%, and playing in 84.6% of the innings.
In the circle, Guest has started nearly half of the games at 48.4% and made an appearance in 71.0% of the games and pitched in 44.2% of the innings. Guest has also accounted for 52.0% of UNM’s strikeouts at 51.
UNM started five freshmen against UConn, seven games with four freshmen starting and 15 games with three freshmen starting.
Brunner is fifth on the team in slugging percentage (.300), as well as third in RBI (11) and home runs (one), while Vasquez-Dickson is tied for the team lead in sac bunts (five), third in stolen bases (fourth) and tied for fourth in RBI (nine), and Smith is tied for third in walks (seven).
KEY CONTRIBUTOR
Keyannah Chavez leads the team in batting average (.378), slugging percentage (.585), on-base percentage (.453), triples (two), walks (10) and total bases (48), is tied for the team lead in home runs (three) and sac bunts (five), and is second in hits (31), RBI (13) and runs scored (15).
The sophomore is 13-29 (.448) as the leadoff, 27-43 (.628) in successfully advancing runners, 3-4 (.750) with runners on third and less than two outs, and of her 13 RBI, six are with two outs.
She’s had nine multiple-hit games (six games with two hits and three games with three) and three multiple RBI games (two games with two RBI and a game with four), with the four the most RBI in a game by a Lobo this season.
SHAKING UP THE LINEUP
In the 31 games this season, the Lobos have used 29 different lineup combinations. UNM has used the same batting order in only the McNeese and Chattanooga games the first weekend and the same lineup in the Montana and Toledo games.
The Lobos have used three different players in the leadoff spot, five in the second spot, four in the third spot, six in the cleanup, seven in the fifth spot, eight in the sixth spot, nine in the seventh spot, eight in the eighth spot and five in the ninth spot in the lineup.
Rachael Hathoot has led off in 20 games, Sydney Carithers ninth in 15 games and Elizabeth Baylor batting seventh in 14 games for the most frequency in the lineup. In addition, Carithers has batted eighth in 11 games, Ashley Archuleta and Chloe Yeatts third in 11 games and Emma Bramson fifth in 11 games, DeNae Vasquez-Dickson second in 10 games, Katherine Brunner sixth in 10 games and Yeatts in the cleanup spot in nine games.
Chavez has made the most movement in the batting order, appearing in seven different spots, the most often in leadoff and second (eight games), six times in third as well as in the cleanup spot, two times in each the sixth and eighth spot and hit fifth in one game. Vasquez-Dickson and Bramson have appeared in six different spots in the lineup throughout the season.
In the field, UNM has used five different players in left, five in right field, four at third, three behind the plate, three in center, three at second base and two at first base. UNM has also had nine as the designated player. Carithers has started as many games at third as she has behind the plate, with Yeatts starting 12 at catcher and 15 at first. Chavez has started 17 games in center and 11 in left, with Vasquez-Dickson starting 12 games in left, six in center and five in right.
Only Hathoot and Bramson have started all 31 games.
BY THE NUMBERS
The Lobos have twice reached double figures in hits this season: UNM’s win against Tennessee State in the season opener, where the Lobos finished with 12 hits, and 15 hits in the win against Marist on Feb. 16.
UNM is 5-0 when scoring at least six runs, 7-1 when scoring at least five runs, 4-2 when outhitting its opponent and 4-2 in one-run games.
If the Lobos can score in the first inning and hold a lead after the first inning, the Lobos are 6-3 when scoring in the first inning and 6-1 when leading after the first, third and fourth innings, 7-1 when leading after the fifth and 6-0 when leading after the sixth inning.
UNM is 29-50 (.580) with a runner on third and less than two outs, going 5-5 in the first game against Marist, 3-3 in the second game against the Red Foxes and 2-2 in the win against Toledo. UNM also went 3-4 in the win against SFA.
Chloe Yeatts is 5-6 with runners on third and less than two outs, DeNae Vasquez-Dickson and Keyannah Chavez both 3-4. Ashley Archuleta is 4-4 and Karly Smith is 2-2 in those instances.
The Lobos have had their leadoff hitter reach 36.1% of the time (74-205), with all seven reaching in the first game against Marist, 4-6 at McNeese and in the second game against Marist, and 5-7 in the game at GCU. UNM has had a leadoff reach four times or more in a game seven times this season.
Rachael Hathoot has reached 15 times as the leadoff, Chavez has reached 13 times and Emma Bramson 10 times to lead UNM.
ABOUT UTEP
The Miners have three players with 20-plus hits this season, led by Ajia Richard at 30 and followed by Lexi Morales at 25 and Bri Garcia at 21. Richard leads in slugging percentage (.743) behind 11 doubles, four home runs and a triple and leads with a team-high 21 RBI, while Morales leads with a .458 on-base percentage that includes a team-high 12 walks. Garcia leads with a .412 batting average with all three starting all 22 games. UTEP has six players that have started all 22 games.
When UTEP reaches base, the Miners are 17-24 in stolen bases with nine recording at least one stolen base. Madi Mendoza is 4-7 and is tied with Autumn Scott for the most stolen bases with Scott 4-5. Opponents are 13-16 in stolen bases against the Miners.
Faith Aragon leads with a team-high 12 starts and carries an 8-3 record and a 2.71 ERA. Aragon has thrown a staff-high 62.0 innings, striking out 47 to 10 walks allowed. Taja Felder has made seven starts with 12 appearances and thrown three complete games and 50.2 innings. As a staff, three Miners have recorded a start with Annika Litterio starting three, and have five complete games with Felder at three and Aragon at two.
UP NEXT
Following Tuesday’s game, the Lobos host UNLV for a three-game series starting Friday night at 6 p.m.