Lobos Make Third Trip to Texas for Tarleton Invitational
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The Lobos make their third consecutive trip to Texas with the latest stop Stephenville, Texas and Tarleton State for the Tarleton Invitational starting Friday. UNM will play five games with one on Friday, two on Saturday and two on Sunday, an adjusted schedule due to anticipated freezing temperatures.
SCHEDULE:
Friday
vs. North Dakota @ 1:15 p.m. WATCH | LIVE STATS
Saturday
vs. Texas Southern @ 11:15 a.m. WATCH | LIVE STATS
vs. North Dakota @ 3:45 p.m. WATCH | LIVE STATS
Sunday
vs. Texas Southern @ 9 a.m. WATCH | LIVE STATS
vs. Tarleton State @ 11:15 a.m. WATCH | LIVE STATS
All five games will be streamed with the neutral games free on the WAC network and the Tarleton State game on ESPN+, and live stats will be available for all games.
The Lobos are a combined 6-1 against the field: 4-0 against North Dakota, 1-0 against Tarleton State and 1-1 against Texas Southern.
WALK IT OUT
The Lobos rank 37th in the NCAA and third in the Mountain West in walks with 37 walks, with 11 different players recording a walk and eight with multiple walks.
Ashley Archuleta leads the team in walks with seven, tied for fifth in the MW, with DeNae Vasquez-Dickson tied for seventh in the conference with six and Allie Williams tied for 15th at five. Against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Archuleta’s first two times at the plate resulted in a four-pitch walk. Archuleta also led off the game at Sam Houston with a four-pitch walk as well as the top of the first in the first game against HCU.
Of the 37 walks, 18 have been on 3-0 counts and 10 have come on full counts.
In the second game against St. Thomas, the Lobos drew two walks, both in four pitches, starting a four-run inning to tie the game at four. Archuleta walked on four pitches to score the first run.
The Lobos have drawn five walks in two games for the season high, five at Sam Houston and five in the first game against St. Thomas. Vasquez-Dickson led off the St. Thomas game with a four-pitch walk with Keyannah Chavez following with a walk on a 3-1 count.
TWO OUTS, SO WHAT
Of UNM’s 42 runs, 23 (54.8%) have come with two outs in the inning.
In the first game against St. Thomas, six of UNM’s eight runs scored came with two outs with three in the second, one in the fourth and two in the sixth. Five of UNM’s eight runs in the season opener came with two outs, with four of UNM’s runs in the first game against Houston coming with two outs. UNM scored three runs in the second game at Houston with two outs, two in the second game at HCU and one in the first game at HCU and one in the seventh inning in the second game at Texas State.
Allie Williams leads the team with six, two-out RBI with Ella Dawson and DeLeon second with four. All three of McKenzie’s RBI coming with two outs. Freshmen have contributed to 19 of the team’s two-out RBI.
Of UNM’s 76 hits, 30 have come with two outs (39.5%), with Williams 9-15 with two outs.
SEIZE YOUR MOMENT
Sophomore Katherine Brunner entered the St. John’s game as a pinch hitter and got a hit and then entered the Fordham game as a pinch hitter and drew a walk, and since then, has earned a spot in the starting lineup. In her first start at shortstop against St. Thomas, Brunner hit a double that scored a run and finished with two RBI in the game.
Brunner enters the weekend with a six-game hitting streak and a seven-game streak of reaching base, a career long in both categories for the Lobo.
ATCITTY IN THE CIRCLE
In her first season with the Lobos, Lexi Atcitty has shown her ability to handle pressure in relief situations. In her four relief appearances, the BYU transfer has inherited six runners and hasn’t allowed a run to score.
She inherited three runners at Sam Houston, two in the second game against Texas State and one in the first game against Texas State. Atcitty made her first appearance in the fourth inning at Sam Houston with bases loaded and one out, and proceeded to get the Lobos out of the inning with a liner to first and a fielder’s choice to leave the bases loaded and without a run scoring. She threw 2.2 scoreless innings, allowing only two hits and zero walks. At Houston, she threw 2.0 scoreless innings while not allowing a hit. In the second game at Texas State, she inherited runners on second and third with one out and retired the next two batters on a grounder to third and a grounder back to the pitcher to leave them both stranded. In the first game at Texas State, Atcitty entered in the second with a runner on first and struck out two while getting flyout to left to get out of the inning.
WHAT’S THE LINEUP?
UNM has used 11 different lineup combinations in the 11 games. Four different players have been in the leadoff spot with DeNae Vasquez-Dickson leading off in the last seven games. The Lobos have had five different players third in the lineup with Allie Williams third in the last four games, and four players in the cleanup spot with Jessica DeLeon hitting cleanup in the last seven games. Seven different players have been sixth in the lineup with Miracle McKenzie hitting sixth in three games, as well as eight different players hitting seventh with Sydney Carithers hitting seventh in three games. Six different players have hit ninth with Jewels Hanawahine and Emma Bramson hitting ninth in three games each.
Only four players have consistently held the same spot in the lineup: Vasquez-Dickson in the leadoff in the last seven games, Williams in third in the last four games, DeLeon in the cleanup in the last seven games and Katherine Brunner fifth in the last four games.
IT’S ABOUT THE SACRIFICE
To date, the Lobos have a conference-best 10 sacrifice hits, led by three from Sydney Carithers, two each from DeNae Vasquez-Dickson, Emma Bramson and Keyannah Chavez and one from Jewels Hanawahine.
Heading into the weekend, the Lobos are tied for 14th in the NCAA in sac bunts, while Carithers is tied for second in the Mountain West in sac bunts and Chavez and Vasquez-Dickson tied for fourth.
FRESHMEN IN NAME ONLY
Through the first two weeks of the season, the freshmen class have stepped in to the lineup and contributed.
Of UNM’s 38 RBI on the season, 26 have come from freshmen and of the 76 hits, 38 (50.0%) have been by freshmen.
Allie Williams has reached base in all 12 games and had a hit in the first 11 games of the season, and has had a team-high five multiple-hit games (three with two and two with three) and three multiple-RBI games (one with two and two with three).
In the circle, Fritz has thrown 19.0 innings in seven appearances and has the second-most strikeouts among the pitching staff with 20. Fritz is fourth in the MW in strikeouts and tied for fourth in strikeouts looking at eight, with her number of appearances tied for second in the conference.
Fritz is averaging 7.4 strikeouts per seven innings, which is third in the MW.
In four of Fritz’s appearances, she has held opponents scoreless and in three appearances allowed only one hit. She has twice finished with five strikeouts.
Freshman Caprice Barela inherited three runners with one out in the third inning of the first game against St. Thomas and got the Lobos out of the inning with a flyout to right and a strikeout looking.
Williams has started all 12 games with DeLeon playing in all 12 with 10 starts and Dawson appearing in eight with one start. Fritz has made seven appearances with two starts.
Williams currently ranks tied for 11th in hits in the NCAA with her 18 hits, the second most by a freshman in the NCAA.
ABOUT NORTH DAKOTA
The Fighting Hawks enter the tournament 5-5 on the season, after going 2-3 in their last weekend with losses to Washington, Grand Canyon and Oregon and wins over Arizona State and Utah Valley.
North Dakota is averaging 4.2 runs per game and 7.4 hits per game, while their pitchers are allowing 4.2 walks per game and 5.6 strikeouts per game.
UND is led at the plate by Katelyn Neumayer, who has a team-high 12 hits and a .387 batting average, one of three players with 10-plus hits. Callie Honig has a team-high eight RBI on 10 hits.
The pitching staff is comprised of seven pitchers, led by Jackie Albrecht, who has made four starts, but has only gone 9.0 innings in five appearances. Makaela Carr has thrown a team-high 23.1 innings with 22 strikeouts to six walks and has thrown two complete games.
ABOUT TEXAS SOUTHERN
Texas Southern has played just four games to date and has losses to SFA, South Dakota, South Dakota State and East Texas A&M.
Kylie Wilson leads TSU at the plate with 10 hits, all singles, and a .769 batting average, while DaNia Durr had a team-high four RBI on four hits with two doubles.
In the circle, the Tigers have used four pitchers with Melonie Guardiola making two starts and Kaelani Randle and Kristen Driver making one each. Guardiola has thrown a team-high 6.1 innings, and as a staff, they are allowing 4.5 walks per game to 3.0 strikeouts per game.
ABOUT TARLETON STATE
Tarleton State is 6-4 on the season with all of its games at home, after going 2-3 in its last tournament.
Austin Germain is its best hitter with 17 hits, five doubles, .688 slugging percentage, .553 on-base percentage and a .531 batting average, while Bella Hernandez has turned 10 hits into a team-high eight RBI.
As a team, Tarleton State is 11-11 in stolen bases with six different players recording at least one and four with multiple.
The Texans have used six pitchers to date, led by four starts and six appearances from Shelby Schultz, who has thrown 22.2 innings with 36 strikeouts to nine walks. As a staff, they have struck out 76 to 29 walks.