Jake Holland Named MW Co-Player of the Year; 4 Lobos Earn All-MW Nods

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Jake Holland was named MW Co-Player of the Year – the first Lobo to earn conference POTY honors since Jack Zoellner in 2017 and eighth in program history – to lead four New Mexico players that earned All-MW honors, the league announced Wednesday ahead of the No.2-seeded Lobos’ MW Tournament opener with No. 3 seed San Jose State this afternoon.

Along with Holland, Reed Spenrath (First Team), Will Asby (First Team) and Khalil Walker (Second Team) all earned all-conference nods. Spenrath’s First Team selection is his second in as many seasons, making him the first Lobo to earn back-to-back First Team honors since Jared Mang did it in 2017 and 2018. UNM’s four All-MW selections in total are also the most since 2017, when five Lobos were named All-MW First or Second Team.

The Lobos’ first tournament bid in seven years is the culmination of a year in which UNM outperformed expectations and improved its winning percentage both in and out of conference for a third straight year. They finished sixth (10-20 MW) in Brown’s first season as head coach in 2022 and narrowly missed out on the conference tournament with a fifth-place finish (13-17 MW) in 2023. They entered the season tied for fifth in the preseason coaches’ poll and finished it in sole possession of second place and a game back of the regular season champs.

JAKE HOLLAND | MW CO-PLAYER OF THE YEAR / FIRST TEAM ALL-MW
Holland shares Player of the Year honors with Air Force’s Jay Thomason after posting the second-best batting average in the conference (.385) overall with a .417 average in conference games, leading the league in slugging (.801) and ranking second in RBI (59) and HR (16)  to lead a Lobo lineup that finished the regular season as the MW statistical leaders in batting average, slugging, on base percentage, runs, hits, RBI, total bases and walks.

Against this year’s MW Tournament qualifiers, Holland batted .500 with eight homers, driving in 26 runs with a 1.687 OPS. He finished the season with a team-high 13 multi-RBI games in total, with four games with five or more RBI.

REED SPENRATH | FIRST TEAM ALL-MW
Spenrath finished the season ranked No. 2 in the conference in triples (4), fifth in OBP (.459), fourth in slugging (.685) and fourth in HR (14) en route to his second First Team All-MW honors, Spenrath finished with multiple hits in 24 games and multiple RBI in 12. He matched a UNM single-game record with two grand slams in the same game to finish with 9 RBI in UNM’s 16-0 win over Nevada on May 10.

The senior first baseman was also a part of 48 of UNM’s league-best 50 double plays, producing the most putouts (435) in the league to go with a career-high 22 assists with just five errors on 462 chances (.989).

WILL ASBY | FIRST TEAM ALL-MW
Asby tied with Holland for the second-most RBI in the league (59) and broke a UNM single-season record with four grand slams this year on 12 homers, also matching Holland with 13 multi-RBI games. In his first year at UNM, the grad transfer by way of San Francisco also finished with 19 multi-hit games and enters the MW Tournament on a 16-game on-base streak.

He finished the regular season ranked among the Top 10 in the MW in six statistical categories – slugging (No. 7, .617), runs (No. 2, 59), hits (No. 7, 70), RBI (No. 2, 59), total bases (No. 6, 127) and sac flies (No. 5, 6).

KHALIL WALKER | SECOND TEAM ALL-MW
Walker led the league in batting average (.390) and ranked second in on-base percentage (.492) to earn All-MW Second Team honors in his first season as a Lobo, producing the longest hit streak of any Lobo this season (18 games) before it was snapped last weekend. He finished the regular season with multiple hits in 17 of 48 games, the third-most on the team.

ON DECK / FOLLOW THE ACTION
The Lobos are in San Diego this week to play for a Mountain West Championship in their first MW Tournament appearance since 2017, having earned the No. 2 seed to lock in its fourth straight matchup with San Jose State (22-31, 16-14 MW) at Tony Gwynn Stadium at 2:30 p.m. (MT) this afternoon. RHP Dayne Pengelly will get the start on the bump against San Jose State RHP Keaton Chase.

All of this week’s tournament action will be broadcast via the MW Network at GoLobos.com/WatchBSB, with live stats available via GoLobos.com/BSBStats. Follow @UNMLoboBaseball on socials for gameday updates, behind-the-scenes content and more.