Lobos Sweep DH with San José State, Secure Second MW Series Win
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – New Mexico Baseball swept its doubleheader with San Jose State at Santa Ana Star Field on Saturday, holding off the Spartans late for a 7-5 win in Game One before erupting for a 17-4 seven-inning run-rule win in Game Two to earn the Lobos’ second Mountain West series victory and first over the Spartans since 2021.
It’s the third time this season that the Lobos (15-9, 6-3 MW) have clinched a weekend series win with a twin bill sweep – they’re 7-1 in their four doubleheaders so far this season. It’s also the second time this week and third this season that they’ve won a game in seven innings thanks to the 10-run rule.
After giving up 16 runs on 22 hits in a heartbreaker on Friday night, the Lobos’ pitchers and defense held the Spartans to nine runs while scattering 15 hits across 16 innings of action on Saturday, batting .381 on the day while holding SJSU to a .246 average in the same span. They now sit half a game behind first-place Air Force (10-12, 6-2 MW) in the Mountain West standings ahead of the Falcons’ series finale at Fresno State tomorrow.
Jake Holland dominated at the plate for the Lobos in both games, going 5-for-6 with three home runs for a total of five runs scored and nine RBI. He drove in seven of those runs in the second game with his second and third homers of the day, the latter of which brought in three runs in the bottom of the sixth to extend UNM’s lead to 13 runs. The senior catcher has now homered in four consecutive games and driven in at least one run in each of his last five. He’s now leading the league in doubles (13) and is tied for the most homers (9) through Saturday’s results.
“I think part of it is maturity – in pitching staff and hitting – and just realizing that baseball is hard,” Holland said. “It’s never going to be easy … We could come out here and score 20 runs or we could score two.
“But whenever our pitching and defense show up, that’s when it makes a difference.”
Postgame thoughts from Jake Holland, who had a monster day for the Lobos to help secure the doubleheader sweep.
Between two games today:
5-for-6 (3 HR), 9 RBI, 5 R, 2 BB#GoLobos pic.twitter.com/S8cc7xSx0M— UNM Baseball (@UNMLoboBaseball) March 24, 2024
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
In total, four different Lobos combined for six home runs on the day – two in Game One and four more in Game Two – for a total of 11 RBI. The Lobos have now homered at least once in each of their last five games, improving to 10-0 in games in which they hit multiple.
After giving up three homers in the final inning of UNM’s 16-13 loss on Friday, LHP Jaren Jackson gave a gutsy relief performance to earn the win in Saturday’s first game and improve to 2-4 in games of record. The senior notched a career-high seven strikeouts over four frames on the mound while walking just two, being tagged for three earned runs on seven hits but striking out two in a scoreless ninth to foil a Spartans rally.
True freshman RHP Ryan Castillo was a revelation in relief in Game Two, earning his first career win while notching career-highs in innings pitched (5) and strikeouts (7) while holding SJSU scoreless that entire span. He retired 13 of 15 batters he faced, allowing only two hits without any walks.
Starting at second base in the first game and shortstop in the second after Chase Weissenborn exited the game due to apparent injury, Devon Dixon was all over the field on defense with a team-high eight assists to go with three putouts on the day. He either assisted on or produced the third out to end the inning seven times in total.
Jake Holland batted .833 on the day and slugged at a 2.333% clip while driving in a team-high nine runs with three homers – he was only retired once via strikeout all day, drawing two walks. Will Asby slammed a homer of his own as well as his first triple of the season and batted .667 on the day with four runs scored on six hits.
Tye Wood – who was 0-for-7 on the week heading into Saturday’s action – broke out of his mini slump with an RBI single to left center that gave the Lobos time to cash in both runs for their first lead of the game.
In Game Two, Josh McAlister made his first start at third base since exiting the Lobos’ 9-6 win over Hofstra with injury on March 3 and showed little signs of rust, going 3-for-3 with three runs and three RBI. He finished a triple short of the cycle while drawing a walk, extending his team-best active on-base streak to 12 games.
True freshman and ABQ native Gene Trujillo (St. Pius X) earned his second career start at DH in Game Two and wasted no time putting on a show for the hometown crowd – he mashed his second home run in just his eighth at-bat of the season to kick off a five-run second inning for the Lobos and followed with an RBI base knock in the fourth, drawing two walks in addition. He’s batting at a .556 clip and slugging 1.333 in his six games played this season. Along with McAlister and Trujillo, Khalil Walker also scored three runs in Game Two, finishing with a pair of base knocks and an RBI.
Devon Dixon didn’t pick up a hit on Saturday but still got an RBI with a bases-loaded walk in Game Two – after batting in two runs in his first 12 games of the season, he’s finished with at least one RBI in nine of his last 11 for a total of 14 in that span.
Getting the start after a dominant outing against Nevada on Sunday (6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 6 K), LHP Daxton Purser extended his streak of scoreless innings to 10 with just two hits in the first four frames before a balk and a single got San Jose on the board in the fifth. The Salt Lake CC product finished with just the two runs attributed on three hits over five innings of work, striking out one and walking three. He’s posted a 1.64 ERA between his last two starts (11 IP).
THE ALL-TIME SERIES
With this weekend in the books, UNM leads the all-time series with the Spartans 22-20-1, with an 20-7 mark against them at home and a 26-17-1 record since they joined the Mountain West in 2014. The Lobos had won at least one game in each of their last four weekend series with San Jose State but hadn’t taken a weekend series from the Spartans since a three-game sweep May 22-23, 2021 (6-2, 14-2 [7 Inn.], 8-4). They only faced each other three times last season, with UNM winning the series opener in Albuquerque 16-8 but falling in the next two (3-8, 3-14 [8 Inn.]).
UNM Head Coach Tod Brown improves to 5-7 against the Spartans in his career with his first weekend series win over them in his tenure in Albuquerque.
THE HIGHLIGHTS (GAME ONE)
⚾️ Highlights from @UNMLoboBaseball 7-5 Win over San Jose State 🐺#AtThePeak | #MWBSB | #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/NNHuTXyCIF
— Mountain West (@MountainWest) March 24, 2024
THE HIGHLIGHTS (GAME TWO)
⚾️ Highlights from @UNMLoboBaseball 17-4 Win over San Jose State ‼️#AtThePeak | #MWBSB | #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/aph4aFlP4K
— Mountain West (@MountainWest) March 24, 2024
UP NEXT / FOLLOW THE ACTION
The Lobos (15-9, 6-3 MW) won’t play again until next Thursday, when they square off with San Diego State (6-14, 2-7 MW) on the road March 28-30. All three games will be streamed via the Mountain West Network, with live stats available via GoLobos.com/BSBStats. Follow @UNMLoboBaseball on socials for promotional/marketing and gameday updates, behind-the-scenes content and more.