Lobos Host Spartans to Begin MW Schedule
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— After 27 games on the road, the Lobos are finally home for the weekend, opening Mountain West play and their home schedule against San José State in a three-game series starting Friday.
UNM enters conference play 14-12-1 while the Spartans are 11-13 on the season. UNM opened conference at SJSU last season, losing the series 2-1, but won the series 2-1 the last time the two teams met in Albuquerque in 2023. UNM is 3-2 against SJSU in the last five games, 5-5 in the last 10.
SCHEDULE
Friday @ 5 p.m.
Saturday @ 2 p.m.
Sunday @ 12 p.m.
Admission for all three games is free, but for those unable to attend, all games will be streamed for free on the Mountain West Network with live stats available.
PUT THE PRESSURE ON
The Lobos have scored in the first inning in 10 games and scored in the second inning in eight games while not allowing a run in the first two innings in the first eight games and in 17 games overall.
UNM is outscoring opponents 23-5 in the second inning and 38-22 through the first two innings.
In addition, the Lobos are outscoring opponents 18-17 in the fourth, 26-11 in the fifth and 16-7 in the sixth inning. On the season, UNM is outscoring opponents 129-98 (+31).
UNM is 6-1 when leading after the first, 9-1 after the second, 10-1 after the third, 11-2 when leading after the fourth, 9-2 after the fifth and 10-2 leading after the sixth.
UNM is 7-3 when scoring in the first inning and 11-3-1 when scoring first.
WALK IT OUT
The Lobos rank 49th in the NCAA and second in the Mountain West in walks with 88 walks, with 13 different players recording a walk and 12 with multiple walks.
UNM has four players with 10 or more walks, led by 15 from Jessica DeLeon, Ashley Archuleta at 12, and Allie Williams and DeNae Vasquez-Dickson at 11 each.
Of the 88 walks, 25 have been on 3-0 counts, 32 on 3-1 counts and 31 have come on full counts.
UNM has started the game with a walk in seven games with Archuleta leading off with a walk in five games (three times on four pitches and two times 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 129 runs, 61 (47.3%) have come with two outs in the inning.
At the Purple Classic, the Lobos scored 13 runs with two outs, five in the first game against Saint Joseph’s, one against San Diego and seven in the second game against Saint Joseph’s. The four runs in the third inning against SJU were with two outs as was the run in the sixth. In the second game against the Hawks, two runs in the first, two runs in the second and the three runs in the fifth inning that ended the game all came with two outs.
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 11, two-out RBI with DeLeon second with nine and McKenzie Allie Williams tied for third with eight.
Freshmen have contributed to 38 of the team’s 55 two-out RBI (69.1%).
Of UNM’s 189 hits, 61 have come with two outs (32.3%), with Williams 14-31 (45.2%) with two outs and McKenzie 10-22 (45.5%).
TRENDING UP
The Lobos are 6-2 in the month of March, which included a six-game winning streak. UNM has had a streak of five games or more only one other time in the last 10 years and eight times in the last 20 years (2022, 10 games; 2013, six games; 2012, nine games; 2012, five games; 2008, nine games; 2006, 13 games; 2005, five games).
UNM is outscoring opponents 41-24 in the eight games, hitting .288 with a .437 slugging percentage and .371 on-base percentage behind 62 hits, 13 doubles, two triples, five home runs and 27 walks. The Lobos are outscoring their opponents in every inning but the first and have scored first in six games (5-1 in those games). The Lobos have also outhit their opponent in seven games and are 6-1 in those games.
In the circle, UNM has a 2.56 ERA with 46 strikeouts to 17 walks.
In addition, the Lobos have also recorded three shutouts and thrown four complete games in March.
At the Purple Classic, UNM went 4-0, outscoring opponents 23-5. The pitching staff finished with a 0.54 ERA with 21 strikeouts to eight walks, allowing five runs (two earned) in 26.0 innings. UNM shut out two opponents and recorded its fourth run-rule of the season.
In addition, entering conference play, the Lobo pitching staff has 166 strikeouts to 80 walks, with the 166 strikeouts matching the season total from last season.
TRENDING UP, PART II
The Lobos rank among the top teams among the Mountain West and NCAA in several categories.
UNM ranks ninth in sac bunts (23), 29th in HBP (22), 32nd in shutouts (six), 35th in team strikeouts per seven innings (6.7), 37th in triples (seven), 49th in walks (88), 65th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2,1), 74th in RBI (119), 78th in hits (189), 80th in doubles (33), 81st in runs (129) and 80th in ERA (3.22).
Among the MW, UNM leads in sac bunts and shutouts, is second in walks, team strikeouts per seven innings, hit-by-pitches and third in fielding percentage (.964), strikeout-to-walk ratio and ERA.
McKenna Guest leads the conference in shutouts, strikeouts and wins, while second in strikeouts per seven innings with Natalie Fritz third in the category. DeNae Vasquez-Dickson leads the MW in sac bunts and is third in toughest to strike out. Allie Williams is third in hits and Jessica DeLeon third in sac flies.
SHUT IT DOWN
Through 27 games, the Lobo pitching staff has recorded six shutouts (three solo by McKenna Guest, one solo by Natalie Fritz and one combined by Fritz and Guest and one combined by Lexi Atcitty and Caprice Barela).
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 (22).
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.
Fritz threw her first shutout in the 2-0 win against San Diego on March 7 and Atcitty and Barela combined for the run-rule shutout against St. Joseph’s on March 8.
MAKE IT COMPLETE
The Lobos have thrown seven complete games this season, five from McKenna Guest and two 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.
WHAT’S THE LINEUP?
UNM has used 26 different lineup combinations in the 27 games, repeating in the Saint Joseph’s game on March 6 and against San Diego on March 7.
Four different players have been in the leadoff spot with Ashley Archuleta leading off in 15 games, including 12 of the last 15. The Lobos have had six different players third in the lineup with Allie Williams third in 17 games including the last seven, and six players in the cleanup spot with Jessica DeLeon hitting cleanup in 19 games. Nine different players have been sixth in the lineup with Katherine Brunner hitting sixth in 10 games, as well as 11 different players hitting seventh with Sydney Carithers hitting seventh in seven games. Six different players have hit ninth with Hayden Luderer hitting ninth in 15 games.
Seven players have consistently hit in the same spot in the lineup: Archuleta in leadoff (UNM 11-4 when she does), DeNae Vasquez-Dickson second in 17 games (UNM 12-5 when she does), Williams third, DeLeon fourth, Miracle McKenzie fifth, Carithers eighth and Luderer ninth.
ABOUT THE SPARTANS
The Spartans are 11-13 on the season, 1-5 in road games and are 3-2 in their last five games.
SJSU is led at the plate by Aubrie Thomas, who is hitting .304 and is one of four Spartans with 20-plus hits on the season with 21. Reina Zermeno leads the team with 25 hits, five doubles and four home runs, while Ahmiya Noriega leads with 16 RBI. Only Thomas, Noriega and Shay McDowell have started all 24 games for the Spartans.
Mia Reynolds leads the pitching staff in appearances (18) and starts (12), and is 6-7 with three complete games with two saves. In 72.2 innings, Reynolds has allowed 77 hits with 49 runs scored (36 earned), striking out 68 to 25 walks. SJSU has used five pitchers to date with four making at least one start. Lacie Ham has started 10 games with 14 appearances and has thrown 54.0 innings.