Holland, Castillo Sweep MW Weekly Awards
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Following a pair of pivotal performances to help New Mexico sweep its doubleheader with San Jose State on Saturday and claim its second Mountain West series win, Jake Holland has been named MW Player of the Week and Ryan Castillo has been named MW Freshman & Pitcher of the Week for their efforts.
It’s the first MW weekly award of both players’ careers and the first for UNM this season – the Lobos racked up four Pitcher of the Week awards and one Player of the Week last season.
With the weekend series win — their first over the Spartans since 2021 — the Lobos (15-9, 6-3 MW) have won four of their last five and are off to their best nine-game start to conference play since 2017. They move into a four-way tie at the top of the league standings heading into a road series at San Diego State (6-16, 2-7 MW) that gets underway Thursday.
MW BASEBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK: JAKE HOLLAND
Holland led the Lobos with a .727 batting average and 2.000% slugging (2.750 OPS) with 14 RBI over three games last weekend, homering four times and hitting two doubles in the process. He batted .750 with runners in scoring position (6-for-8) and .667 in two-out situations (4-for-6) in that span. The senior catcher finished with multiple hits, runs and RBI in all three games, homering in each — Holland scored eight runs on the weekend, drawing three walks and only striking out once. He also started behind the dish in all three games, generating 25 putouts and three assists without any errors.
A weekend in review for the Orlando, Fla. native:
- Led the Lobos with five RBI on a homer and two doubles in the series opener on Friday and homered twice in the series finale while racking up seven RBI to help the Lobos run-rule the Spartans, 17-4 in seven innings.
- In a pivotal Game Two on Saturday – the first game of the doubleheader – he got on the base paths all in all five at-bats via a home run, two singles, a walk and a HBP. His seventh-inning solo shot tied the game up at 4-all and his RBI base knock in the eighth put the Lobos up 7-5 — a lead they’d hold onto through nine.
- Drove in the first run for the Lobos with a sac fly in Game Two on Saturday after they fell behind 3-0 early — he hit his third homer of the weekend for 3 RBI in the next inning to cap off a five-run frame that changed the complexion of the game entirely. Added his fourth no-doubter in the penultimate frame to yield three more runs and put UNM up by 13.
MW BASEBALL PITCHER / FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK: RYAN CASTILLO
Castillo – a true freshman making just his fourth appearance of the season on Saturday – was a revelation in relief in Game Two, earning his first career win while notching career-highs in innings pitched (5) and strikeouts (7) without surrendering a single earned run. He retired 13 of 15 batters he faced, allowing only two hits without any walks.
Entering the game in the third with runners on second and third and nobody out, Castillo allowed one unearned run on a sac fly and shut down the Spartans’ bats the rest of the way — he struck out the side in order in the fifth and then two more to open the sixth and reach five batters struck out in succession before a grounder made it another 1-2-3 frame. Castillo used only 65 pitches over those five frames — 38 strikes — while inducing five grounders and one flyout.
UP NEXT / FOLLOW THE ACTION
After turning their week around with a doubleheader sweep of San Jose State on Saturday to claim their second Mountain West series win and move into a four-way tie for first place in the league standings, the New Mexico Lobos (15-9, 6-3 MW) continue conference play on the road at San Diego State (6-16, 2-7 MW) March 28-30.
With no midweek action this week, UNM gets a four-day respite going into this weekend’s three-game set – the Lobos are looking to snap a streak of 11 straight losses to SDSU dating back to 2021 and secure their first series win over the Aztecs since 2019.