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Lobos Fall in Game Two at UNLV to Even Series

Lobos Fall in Game Two at UNLV to Even SeriesLobos Fall in Game Two at UNLV to Even Series

DJ Cabalong / UNLV Athletics

Box Score

LAS VEGAS – New Mexico Baseball scored in five different innings and hit its fourth and fifth homers of the series in Game Two with UNLV at Earl E. Wilson Stadium Saturday night, but the Rebels (25-21, 11-15 MW) outscored the Lobos 9-3 over the final five frames to tie up the weekend series with a 13-8 win.

Even with their streak of fours straight conference wins and four straight wins over UNLV snapped, the Lobos (24-21, 13-10 MW) remain one game behind first-place Fresno State (27-19, 14-9) in sole possession of second place in the MW standings and half a game ahead of third-place Nevada (20-22, 13-11).

The Lobos can clinch the weekend series with a win in tomorrow’s rubber match, set for a 1 p.m. MT first pitch. Live streaming will be available via the MW Network at GoLobos.com/WatchBSB, with live stats at GoLobos.com/BSBStats. Follow @UNMLoboBaseball on socials for promotional/marketing and gameday updates, behind-the-scenes content and more.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
UNM finished with 10 hits to crack double-digit knocks for its eighth-straight game, with Chase Weissenborn (2 R, 3 RBI, 1 BB) and Reed Spenrath (1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB) both homering and finishing with two hits each to lead the way. Weissenborn’s was only the third of his four-year UNM career but his second in the last two weeks, with Spenrath’s being his 11th of the season and second of the weekend.

Konner Kinkade (1 R) also finished with a pair of hits in the leadoff spot and Tye Wood tripled for the second game in a row and drew a season-high three walks to score three runs. Khalil Walker drew two more base on balls and scored a run and Jake Holland singled and drove in a run to round things out.

Walker extended his team-best hit streak to 16 games and scored a run for the fifth game in a row – Spenrath extended his team-best on base streak to 27 games

RHP Brett Russell (5.0 IP, 9 H, 10 R/6 ER, 3 BB, 3 K) put a zero on the board in three of his five innings on the mound but got roughed up in the other two, allowing four runs on four hits in the second and six more on four hits and an error in the fifth. He was tagged for his first loss of the season, dropping to 4-1.

RHP Ryan Castillo (1.2 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K) struck out two over the next two innings and LHP Justin Still (0.1 IP) got the final out in the seventh before RHP Josh Barnhouse (1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K) tossed a 1-2-3 inning to keep things scoreless in the eighth.

THE ACTION
Chase Weissenborn got things started in the second, crushing an 0-1 slider 420 feet for a two-run homer – his second in as many weeks and UNM’s fourth of the weekend – that scored both himself and Wood, who drew a walk to lead off the inning.

Kinkade doubled after a lineout from Walker to threaten more with two outs but was left there by three strikes on Asby.

Last week’s MW Pitcher of the Week, Russell turned a 1-2-3 frame in the first after the Lobos came up empty to start but got into some trouble in the second after a leadoff walk was followed by four hits – two singles and two doubles – to plate four in response before he could end the frame with his first strikeout and a popup in succession.

UNM capitalized on a throwing error after Weissenborn and Walker both got aboard in succession with one out, with Weissenborn scoring from second to cut the deficit to one and Asby tying things up with a sac fly in the following at-bat. Holland laced a single to left field to bring in the go-ahead and Spenrath followed with a base knock of his own to keep the rally going before a grounder from Smith ended the frame.

After three of four Lobos were retired in a hitless top of the third, Russell settled back in, retiring six of his next to put a zero on the board in the next two frames.

Wood added another run to the lead with some quick baserunning in the sixth, drawing a leadoff walk, stealing second and advancing to third on a grounder from Weissenborn before hurrying home on a wild pitch to add to the lead despite a hitless inning.

Russell found himself in a jam again in the bottom of the frame after the Rebels got runners to second and third on an error from Wood in left field – UNLV’s Kade Higgins followed with an RBI single that plated them both to tie things up again and Parker Schmidt doubled to retake the lead at 7-6. Russell induced a foulout in the next at-bat for the second out, but this time the third was more elusive – the Rebels added three more on a homer from Bailey Seeger to extend the lead to 10-6 before he could end the frame with a four-pitch strikeout.

Spenrath provided a response with his second homer of the series and 11th of the season to cut the deficit to three, but he was the only Lobo not retired that frame. Castillo took over on the bump for the next frame, striking out two in a row after surrendering a leadoff base knock but allowing another run to cross to put UNLV back up four before a flyout kept things moving.

Wood drove a leadoff triple that was inches away from exiting the ballpark but instead bounced back onto the field of play in the following frame, with Weissenborn cashing him in with a sacrifice fly to get UNM back within three again, but the Rebels responded in kind yet again.

Alex Pimentel mashed a leadoff solo shot to tack on a 12th run for UNLV and the Rebels extracted another after three consecutive one-out hits to go up by five, with Castillo generating a popup for the second out before Still took the mound to get the third. The junior lefty hit the first batter he faced after missing on his first two pitches but didn’t allow another run to cross, inducing a fly to right to bring up the bats with six outs to work with.

Asby drew a walk in the eighth to make it back-to-back innings with the leadoff man aboard, but Holland struck out in a seven-pitch AB and Spenrath flew out to complicate things. Subbing in at DH, Ethan Ott produced a base knock up the middle to get Asby to scoring position and bring up Wood, who promptly drew his third walk of the night to juice the bases with two outs. But the Lobos got nothing out of it – Trujillo lined out after falling behind 0-2 in the count to keep the score unchanged.

Barnhouse tossed a clean bottom of the eighth to give the Lobos one more chance to swing the bat, inducing a flyout before an overpowering three-pitch K and a liner ended things.

A leadoff base hit from Weissenborn – who was replaced by Dixon as a pinch runner – made it three straight innings with the first batter on base, but the run became double play fodder on a lineout from Walker and Kinkade flew out on the first pitch he saw to end the game before the Lobos could threaten any further.

UP NEXT
Tomorrow’s finale is set for a 1:05 p.m. MT first pitch, with RHP Carson Lane (6.55 ERA, 0-1, 33.0 IP, 12 BB, 21 K) set to start on the bump against a to-be-determined thrower for UNM. Live streaming for all of this weekend’s series will be available via the MW Network at GoLobos.com/WatchBSB, with live stats at GoLobos.com/BSBStats. Follow @UNMLoboBaseball on socials for promotional/marketing and gameday updates, behind-the-scenes content and more.