Lobos Split Friday at Bobcat Tournament

SAN MARCOS, Texas— The Lobos split Friday’s games at the Bobcat Tournament, dropping the first game to Fordham 4-2 before defeating St. Thomas 8-3 in the night game. The eight runs tied the season high for the Lobos with the Lobo pitching staff combining to strike out a season-high 13 Tommies in the win.

McKenna Guest took the decisions in both games, throwing a total of 7.0 innings and striking out 13 batters with a season-high seven in the first game against the Rams and six in 3.0 of scoreless innings against the Tommies, of which she didn’t allow a hit.

At the plate, Allie Williams went a combined 5-7 to lead the Lobos, while also driving in a team-high four RBI.

GAME 1: Trailing 4-2, the Lobos loaded the bases on three walks in the top of the seventh of the opening game of the Bobcat Tournament to Fordham, but were unable to push across any runs in the loss.

Fordham opened the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the third, with the top of the lineup responding in the top of the fourth to cut the deficit in half on a leadoff triple off the centerfield wall by DeNae Vasquez-Dickson and Williams driving a single down the left-field line to score her.

With the hit, Williams extended her hit streak to eight games and also led the Lobos with two hits in the game for her team-high fourth multi-hit game of the season. Following a fielder’s choice with the out made at second, Jessica DeLeon singled to put the tying run on second, but a double play ended the inning.

UNM was unable to capitalize off of a leadoff single to left by Keyannah Chavez in the top of the fifth with Fordham adding to its lead in the bottom half of the inning after loading the bases with two hit-by-pitches and a walk. Entering to pitch in relief of starter Guest, who went 4.0 innings and struck out a season-and game-high seven Rams, Natalie Fritz struck out her first batter before a walk led to a run and a dropped popup to first allowed a second run to score. Fritz left two runners on with another strikeout for the third out.

The top of the lineup tried to rally the Lobos again in the top of the sixth with Vasquez-Dickson drawing a leadoff walk and Williams hitting it back up the middle to put the first two batters on. A wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position with one out, to which DeLeon hit a sac fly to left on a 3-2 count with Vasquez-Dickson tagging from third. A grounder to third ended the inning with one left in scoring position.

After Fritz recorded her third strikeout of the game to get the third out of the sixth inning, UNM had its leadoff reach on a Chavez walk. Emma Bramson drew a one-out walk and pinch hitter Katherine Brunner loaded the bases with a walk with the lineup turning over. A strikeout and grounder to second left the bases loaded for the final.

Fritz allowed one hit in 2.0 innings of scoreless relief.

The Lobos had their leadoff reach in four innings and left six runners on, including three left in scoring position.

GAME 2: After the Tommies hit a leadoff home run to start the night game, the Lobos responded by scoring the next four runs with a run in the bottom of the first and three in the bottom of the second to establish control that while St. Thomas pulled within a run in the fourth, never relinquished.

Vasquez-Dickson got the bottom of the first started with a four-pitch walk with Chavez following suit on a walk to put the first two runners on. A single by Williams loaded the bases, and two at-bats later, Katherine Brunner hit the ball to the shortstop with the Tommies making the play at third with Chavez crossing the plate to tie the game.

Starter Lexi Atcitty retired the side in order, including her third strikeout of the game to end the top of the second, to put the Lobos back at the plate, where they took the lead with three runs on two hits. Sydney Carithers started a two-out rally with a four-pitch walk to turn the lineup over, Vasquez-Dickson was hit by a pitch and Chavez drew her second walk of the game to load the bases for the second time. Williams broke the tie on a single to right field that scored Vasquez-Dickson and Carithers with DeLeon adding another run on a single to right to score Chavez for the 4-1 Lobo lead.

St. Thomas scored a run in both the third and fourth innings to cut the lead to one, however, the Lobos punched back by scoring four unanswered runs, starting with two runs in the home half of the fourth with the top of the Lobo lineup again responsible.

Vasquez-Dickson got the inning started by driving the first pitch of the inning to the gap in right center for a triple, her second of the day, and Chavez singled to shortstop with Williams hitting a sacrifice fly to right that allowed Vasquez-Dickson to tag. DeLeon drew a walk and Brunner doubled to the gap in left center that allowed pinch runner Hayden Luderer to score all the way from first on the play.

UST threatened in the top of the fifth, putting its first two batters on and in scoring position on a single down the left-field line and a double to right center. Guest entered in relief, getting a lineout to Emma Bramson at first and back-to-back strikeouts to leave them stranded.

The Lobos added two more runs in the sixth on two hits with Williams getting it started with a single up the middle, Luderer getting hit by a pitch and a grounder to second moving both runners into scoring position with two outs. Mya Pacheco brought both runs in on a single to right field for the final runs of the game as Guest closed the game by striking out the side in order in the top of the seventh for the win.

UNM finished with 10 hits in the game, led by a 3-3 and three RBI performance from Williams to extend her hitting streak and for her second three-hit and second three-RBI game of the season, a 3-4 and two RBI performance for Pacheco. In the circle, UNM used four pitchers with Caprice Barela throwing 1.2 innings, allowing one hit and one run with three strikeouts. Atcitty finished with four strikeouts with Guest closing the game with six strikeouts to give the staff a season-high 13 strikeouts in the game to go with 10 strikeouts in the first game.

In addition, of UNM’s eight runs, six came with two outs.

Up next: the Lobos face Texas State at 3:45 p.m. MT and St. Thomas at 6 p.m. MT on Saturday.