Lobos Erupt for 21 Hits, 4 HR in 17-3 Rout of Texas Tech

LUBBOCK, Texas – New Mexico Baseball dictated the tone of its midweek matchup with Texas Tech (29-14, 12-9 Big 12) on the road at Rip Griffin Park on Tuesday, racking up 21 hits and slamming four homers behind a complete effort from the bullpen en route to a 17-3 win — the first for the Lobos (20-19, 9-9 MW) in Lubbock since 2015.

NOTABLES

• UNM’s 14-run margin of victory was its largest against Texas Tech since a 15-0 win in Albuquerque on Feb. 10, 1985 and the largest ever in a game between the two teams in Lubbock.
• The Lobos have now beaten TTU in each of the last three seasons — the first time they’ve done so since 2017 — and split the two-game season series in the last two.
• It’s also the second win against a Power 5 team on the road this season for the Lobos, who downed Arizona State 6-4 in Phoenix in midweek action on March 12. They’ve now won four of six since snapping their longest losing streak of the season at eight games last Sunday, with three of those wins against teams that rank in the Top 150 in the nation by RPI.

“Had a great start from Barnhouse and the bats got going early,” said UNM Head Coach Tod Brown, who improves to 3-5 against Texas Tech in his three seasons at the helm in Albuquerque and has won three of the last five meetings.  “Steinkamp, McBroom, Jackson and Bannister came in and did a great job throwing strikes and getting out of jams.

“The bats were hot today and we really put some quality at-bats together and didn’t miss on mistake pitches — hoping this can be the game that gets us hot as we head into a big weekend of conference play.”

UNM now turns its attention towards a series rematch with San Diego State (11-29, 5-13 MW) this weekend at Santa Ana Star Field. The Lobos beat the Aztecs for the first time since 2021 in their series opener on March 28 (5-2) but dropped both games of a doubleheader the following day (6-8, 0-13) to lose the weekend series.  SDSU sits in seventh place in the league standings and heads into the weekend on a six-game losing streak, while the fifth-place Lobos need to snap a streak of three straight MW series losses to stay in contention for a Top-Four finish and MW Tournament bid.

Friday’s series opener is set for a 6 p.m. start time, with Saturday’s Game Two at 2 p.m. and Sunday’s finale at 12 p.m. (all times MT). All three games will be streamed via the MW 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.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Will Asby connected on his ninth and tenth homers of the year – with the second being his third grand slam this season – and Chase Weissenborn and Khalil Walker both hit their first big flies of the season back-to-back to power a day that saw six different Lobos pick up at least one RBI. UNM scored the final 10 runs of the game – including six in the top of the ninth – while a quartet of relievers kept the Red Raiders from getting back on the board over the final five frames.

Asby hadn’t hit a homer in his last 13 games prior to UNM’s second game against Air Force last Sunday – he’s now hit three in his last three games. With his third grand slam of the season, Asby has now matched a single-season program record set in 1995 by Mark Wulfert and is up to five games this season with four or more RBI.

In his first game back since exiting with an injury on March 23, Weissenborn finished with a team-high four RBI with four hits to go with a walk and a HBP – his eighth-frame homer was only the second big fly of his four-year career at UNM (138 GP). The two games this season in which he’s driven in the most runs were against the two best teams the Lobos have faced by RPI (3 RBI vs. Oregon State, Feb. 16).

Walker went 3-for-5 for his 12th multi-hit game this season, connecting on a double in the ninth after his solo shot in the eighth while scoring three runs. Konner Kinkade also finished with three knocks – two singles and a double – in the leadoff spot while scoring two more.

In total, eight Lobos finished with multiple hits, with Josh McAlister, Kyle Smith (2 R, 1 RBI, 2 BB), Reed Spenrath (1 R, 1 RBI) and Jake Holland (2 R, 1 BB) all adding two each. Tye Wood finished with 3 RBI on just one hit, driving in two with a bases-loaded single and another on a sacrifice fly.

RHP Josh Barnhouse set the tone for a dominant day for UNM on the bump with 3 ⅓ solid innings of work in his third start of the season, allowing one across in the first but retiring eight of his next nine before back-to-back homers cued his departure from the game. He struck out three in that span and walked two while being tagged for four hits. Taking the mound next, LHP Arthur Steinkamp (2 BB, 1 K) got UNM out of the inning without any further damage and kept Tech off the board for the next two frames despite five hits in that span and RHP Brian McBroom (1 H, 0 BB, 0 K), LHP Jaren Jackson (0 H, 1 BB, 1 K) and RHP Wil Bannister (0 H, 0 BB, 2 K) all pitched a scoreless frame each to keep the Red Raiders from cutting into the lead even as it ballooned to 14 in the ninth.

Bannister kept his recent hot streak going with a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the ninth, opening with two strikeouts before inducing a game-ending flyout that Walker corralled to end the game without much anxiety. 

UNM improves to 7-0 in games in which they hold opponents to three runs or fewer — three of those have come in the Lobos’ last six games since snapping an eight-game skid with their series finale win over Fresno State (6-2) last Sunday.

ALL-TIME SERIES
With the win, the Lobos improve to 50-81-1 against Texas Tech all-time and 21-54 in road games — they’ve now beaten them once in each of the last three seasons. Prior to today, UNM hadn’t won in Lubbock since 2015 — they’d won six games in Albuquerque in the time since but fell 10 times in Lubbock in the same span.

Coach Brown improves to 3-4 against TTU in his time at UNM (2021 – present) with his third win over the Red Raiders in his last four times coaching against them after losing the first three meetings.

UNM’s 14-run margin of victory was its largest against Texas Tech since a 15-0 win in Albuquerque on Feb. 10, 1985 and the largest ever in a game between the two teams in Lubbock.

UP NEXT / FOLLOW THE ACTION
UNM returns home to play host to San Diego State (11-28, 5-13 MW) for a three-game weekend series at Santa Ana Star Field April 26-28 — the first of four teams below the Lobos in the conference standings that they’ll have to fend off to hold on to their spot in the MW Tournament May 23-25 in San Diego, Calif. The Aztecs swept a DH (8-6, 13-0 [7 Inn.]) to take the three-game set in San Diego March 28-29 after the Lobos snapped an 11-game losing streak to SDSU with a 5-2 win in the series opener but sit in last place in the league standings and are riding a five-game skid.