Lobos Fall in Windy Series Opener at CSU Saturday
FORT COLLINS, Colo.—The ball was flying in Saturday’s windy series opener at Colorado State with the Lobos falling 12-4 in five innings, which included Chloe Yeatts hitting her sixth home run of the season and a triple off the wall by Keyannah Chavez for her fifth of the season.
Four of UNM’s five hits went for extra bases as Rachael Hathoot and Elizabeth Baylor hit a double, with Baylor going 2-2 on the day.
Yeatts led with three RBI on a two-run home run in the third and a groundout to second in the first inning that scored UNM’s second run.
UNM took an early lead with two runs in the top of the first with Hathoot leading off the game with a hit-by-pitch, followed by a sacrifice bunt by DeNae Vasquez-Dickson and a triple to right field for Chavez to open the scoring. Yeatts added to the lead with the aforementioned RBI, scoring Chavez.
Colorado State cut the lead in half on a two-out home run, to which the Lobos responded in the top of the third with two runs, also occurring with two outs. After Chavez reached on a hit-by-pitch, Yeatts drove the 2-1 pitch over the fence in center for the 4-1 Lobo lead. However, the Rams matched it with two runs in the bottom of the inning off a solo home run and a grounder to Hathoot at short for the second out that scored a run. A home run to start the bottom of the fourth tied the game at four before McKenna Guest retired the next three Rams.
The Lobos were in position to retake the lead in the fifth following a Hathoot double to start the inning with Vasquez-Dickson bunting her over, but following a walk for Chavez, a double play ended the opportunity. The Rams broke the tie and took their first lead of the game in the bottom of the fifth on a leadoff walk followed by a double to right center with the runner scoring on a fielding error, and proceeded to score a total of eight runs on seven hits to enforce the run rule.
UNM went with three freshmen in the game with Guest getting the start and going 4.0 innings and allowing seven hits and eight runs, striking out three before Brooke Umali entered in relief in the fifth inning. Umali faced four Rams before Kenzie Jones entered in the circle and faced two Rams.
Of note in the game, Hathoot extended her on-base streak to 22 games and has registered a hit in the last four games and 21 of the last 22 games. Macie Andrews extended her streak of reaching base to four games and Yeatts tallied her sixth multi-RBI game of the season with her second game finishing with three RBI.
The Lobos close out the series with CSU on Sunday at 12 p.m. MT.