Lobos Head to Arizona for Purple Classic
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The Lobos travel to Phoenix, Arizona for their final nonconference tournament of the season, set to play San Diego, Saint Joseph’s and Penn with five games starting Thursday.
SCHEDULE
Thursday
Saint Joseph’s @ 4 p.m. LIVE STATS
Friday
San Diego @ 9 a.m. LIVE STATS
Penn @ 12 p.m. LIVE STATS
Saturday
Saint Joseph’s @ 9 a.m. LIVE STATS
San Diego @ 2:30 p.m. LIVE STATS
The games will only have live stats available.
UNM will face SJU and Penn for the first time in program history, with the Lobos last playing San Diego in 2016 and are 3-1 against the Toreros.
PUT THE PRESSURE ON
The Lobos have scored in the first inning in eight games (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, HCU on Feb. 7, Houston on Feb. 7, St. Thomas on Feb. 14, Texas State on Feb. 16, Texas Southern on Feb. 22, Northwestern State and Alabama State on March 1) and scored in the second inning in six games (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Houston on Feb. 7, St. John’s, St. Thomas on Feb. 14, North Dakota on Feb. 21 and Texas Southern on Feb. 22), while not allowing a run in the first two innings in the first eight games and in 14 games overall.
UNM is outscoring opponents 17-2 in the second inning and 28-15 through the first two innings.
In addition, the Lobos are outscoring opponents 23-11 in the fifth and 12-7 in the sixth inning. On the season, UNM is outscoring opponents 104-87 (+17).
UNM is 5-1 when leading after the first, 7-1 after the second and the third, 8-2 when leading after the fourth, 7-2 after the fifth and after the sixth.
UNM is 6-2 when scoring in the first inning and 8-2-1 when scoring first.
IT’S ABOUT THE SACRIFICE
To date, the Lobos have a conference-best 20 sacrifice hits, led by a conference-high six from DeNae Vasquez-Dickson, four from Hayden Luderer and three from Sydney Carithers and Emma Bramson. Luderer’s four are tied for third in the MW.
Heading into the weekend, the Lobos are tied for sixth in the NCAA in sac bunts.
In the opening weekend, seven of UNM’s runs scored were as a result of a sac bunt moving the runner over, with two runs in the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi game, two in the first Houston game and two against St. John’s. The first run and the last run in the season opener against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi were set up by sac bunts with Vasquez-Dickson laying down one in the first to move Ashley Archuleta, who later scored, and Carithers in the seventh, to move pinch runner Ava Castillo, who later scored to end the game.
The go-ahead run in the second game at HCU was set up by a sac bunt with Bramson moving Carithers over with Carithers later scoring on a passed ball with two outs. Both runs scored in the St. John’s game came from a sac bunt with Carithers laying down the bunt.
In the Bulldog Invitational, four runs were set up by sac bunts, twice in two games. Against Northwestern State, the first run was set up by a Vasquez-Dickson sac bunt that moved Archuleta over, and in the fifth inning, Luderer laid down a sac bunt that moved Ava Castillo into scoring position with Castillo later coming around to end the game via run-rule. In the fifth inning in the first game against Alabama State, Vasquez-Dickson moved Archuleta over on a sac bunt with the Lobo later scoring from second. In the next inning, Bramson put down a sac bunt to move Georgia Heathcock over with Heathcock scoring from second on the next at-bat.
Dating back to 2006, the most sacrifice hits in a season was 51 done in 2006. The Lobos had 44 last season, the third most in that time span.
WALK IT OUT
The Lobos rank 31st in the NCAA and second in the Mountain West in walks with 75 walks, with 13 different players recording a walk and 12 with multiple walks.
UNM has four players with 10 or more walks, led by 13 from Jessica DeLeon, Ashley Archuleta and Allie Williams with 11 each and DeNae Vasquez-Dickson at 10.
Of the 75 walks, 22 have been on 3-0 counts, 28 on 3-1 counts and 25 have come on full counts.
UNM has started the game with a walk in six games with Archuleta leading off with a walk in four games (three times on four pitches and one time at 3-2) and Vasquez-Dickson twice, once on four pitches and once with a full count.
The Lobos have drawn five or more walks in six games with a season-high seven in the Feb. 23 game against Texas Southern.
TWO OUTS, SO WHAT
Of UNM’s 104 runs, 46 (44.2%) have come with two outs in the inning.
At the Tarleton Invitational, the Lobos scored seven runs with two outs in the 13-run fifth inning against Texas Southern on Feb. 23, scored five runs with two outs in the first game against Texas Southern and five runs with two outs in the second game against UND.
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.
In the 1-0 win against Houston Christian, Miracle McKenzie’s hit that scored the only run of the game came with two outs in the inning.
With two outs and trailing 3-2 in Saturday’s game at Houston, Jessica DeLeon had her first clutch hit of the game with a single to the outfield to score DeNae Vasquez-Dickson and tie the game.
Ella Dawson leads the team with eight, two-out RBI with Allie Williams second with seven and DeLeon third with six.
Freshmen have contributed to 27 of the team’s 42 two-out RBI (64.3%).
Of UNM’s 153 hits, 50 have come with two outs (32.7%), with Williams 11-23 with two outs and McKenzie 8-17.
TRENDING UP
In the last three tournaments, the Lobos went from hitting .259 at the Bobcat Tournament to .278 at the Tarleton Invitational to .323 last weekend at the Bulldog Invitational and have increased run production from 16 runs on 35 hits (Bobcat) to 34 runs on 35 hits (Tarleton) to 42 hits in the Bulldog Invitational.
The slugging percentage has also increased from .296 (Bobcat) to .484 (Tarleton) with the Lobos holding steady at .454 last weekend. The Lobos are also finding their way on base more, increasing their on-base percentage from .342 (Bobcat) with 14 walks and four hit-by-pitches to .406 (Tarleton) with 21 walks and seven hit-by-pitches to .419 (Bulldog) with 17 walks and six hit-by-pitches.
UNM has also cut its strikeouts down from 32 (Bobcat) to 21 (Tarleton) to 19 (Bulldog).
In the last two weeks, Ashley Archuleta has improved her batting average from .462 to .538 after hitting .200 at the Bobcat Tournament.
SHUT IT DOWN
Through 22 games, the Lobo pitching staff has recorded four shutouts (three solo by McKenna Guest and one combined by Natalie Fritz and Guest).
Dating back to 2006, it is the fifth time that the Lobos have recorded four shutouts in a season (others were in 2006, 2007, 2013, 2023), and the second time under Head Coach Nicole Dickson, but reached the feat in the fewest amount of games.
The last season the Lobos had more than four was in 2004 with 12.
Guest and Fritz combined for the third shutout of the season in the 2-0 win over North Dakota on Feb. 21, combining for 11 strikeouts with Guest throwing 6.0 innings and nine strikeouts and Fritz closing with two strikeouts on three batters faced.
The Lobo sophomore threw her third shutout of the season in the March 2 game against Alabama State, striking out nine to one walk and two hits.
MAKE IT COMPLETE
The Lobos have thrown five complete games this season, four from McKenna Guest and one from Natalie Fritz.
Guest started her sophomore season throwing two complete-game shutouts with an 8-0, five inning shutout against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and a 1-0 shutout against Houston Christian.
Guest threw a complete game in the season opener, allowing a single in the second inning, and finished with three strikeouts for her first shutout as a Lobo. The sophomore retired the side in both the fourth and fifth innings and retired eight consecutive batters between the third and the fifth innings.
After allowing leadoff walk on her first Husky faced, Guest retired the next nine Huskies before giving up a leadoff single in the fourth. HCU had a runner reach on a one-out walk in the fifth, but Guest struck out the next Husky looking and got the third out on a swinging strikeout to leave two runners on. Guest finished the game with four strikeouts, four hits allowed and two walks on 26 batters faced.
Fritz threw her first complete game, finishing with nine strikeouts, four hits allowed and of the three runs, one earned in the 6-3 win over Alabama State on March 1.
ABOUT SAINT JOSEPH’S
The Hawks are coming off a 1-4 weekend at the Mizuno Showdown hosted by North Carolina, losing to North Carolina twice and Kent State and splitting with Harvard. SJU has played 14 games this season, going 7-7, but have four players with double-digit hits led by Meghan Sinkus with 14. Sinkus leads the team with a .378 batting average and 12 RBI, while four of Sierra Fretz’s nine hits have gone for home runs and five for extra bases. Hailey Malito leads with 18 walks with Sarah Cancilia second with 10, with the Hawks drawing 54 walks to date.
In the circle, Marla Freiwald has made a team-high 11 appearances with Taylor Trowbridge getting the most starts at six followed by five from Jenna Wagner. As a staff, SJU has allowed 75 runs on 108 hits, striking out 43 to 40 walks.
Saint Joseph’s has been aggressive on the base paths, stealing 17 bases on 19 attempts, led by five from Cancila.
ABOUT SAN DIEGO
USD is 9-13 on the season following a 3-2 weekend at the Oregon Tournament with wins over Loyola Chicago and Portland State (twice). The two losses came against No. 14 Oregon.
The Toreros are led at the plate by Alyssa Hernandez’s 25 hits with Michelle Delgado closely behind at 23 and Kaitlyn Wynia with 20. As a team, USD has 182 hits, scoring 94 runs in its 22 games.
San Diego has utilized five pitchers with Kelsey Tadlock making 16 appearances and eight starts, team highs in both categories. Kaitlyn Bartlow has started five games with 10 appearances and Emma Giaime and McKenna Braegelmann each with four starts. As a staff, USD has allowed 109 runs on 169 hits with 86 strikeouts to 71 walks.
ABOUT PENN
Out of the Ivy League, Penn has played only six games this season with its last game on Feb. 23. The Quakers won their first game against Morgan State and have lost their last five.
Gigi Ganje and Ella Utschig each have five hits to lead the team with Jade Montgomery leading with a .500 batting average and is responsible for the team’s one home run. In its six games, Penn has scored nine runs on 28 hits and is batting .224 as a team with a .299 on-base percentage.
Penn has used five pitchers with Ainsley Pemberton throwing two complete games in her three starts and 16.1 of the team’s 33.0 innings. The Quaker has a team-high 16 strikeouts, accounting for 64.0% of the team’s total of 25.