Lobos Close Out Stay in San Diego with Tritons Tuesday
SAN DIEGO— The Lobos remain in San Diego to face UC San Diego on Tuesday morning with first pitch set for 11 a.m. PT/ 12 p.m. PT on ESPN+.
Tuesday’s game will be the first meeting against UCSD in program history.
WALK IT OUT
The Lobos rank second in the Mountain West in walks with 105 walks, with 13 different players recording a walk and 12 with multiple walks.
UNM has five players with 10 or more walks, led by 15 from Jessica DeLeon, DeNae Vasquez-Dickson and Ashley Archuleta with 14, Allie Williams at 13 and Sydney Carithers with 11.
Of the 105 walks, 29 have been on 3-0 counts, 37 on 3-1 counts and 39 have come on full counts.
UNM has started the game with a walk in eight games with Archuleta leading off with a walk in six games (four 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.
ARCH AT THE TOP
In her senior season, Ashley Archuleta is leading the Lobos in five categories.
The New Mexico native leads in batting average (.389), slugging percentage (.589), on-base percentage (.481), doubles (nine) and total bases (53) and leads the team with 11 multiple-hit games (nine games with two, one with three and one with four). She is also second in hits (35), runs scored (23), tied for the ream high in triples (three) and tied for second in walks (14).
In Sunday’s game against San José State, Archuleta went a season-best 4-4 with two doubles, tying her career highs in hits and doubles. In the series with the Spartans, Archuleta hit .600 with six hits that included three doubles, and had a .900 slugging percentage and .545 on-base percentage.
Archuleta is hitting .465 in the month of March with a team-high 20 hits, that includes six doubles. The Lobo also leads the team in slugging percentage (.651), on-base percentage (.500), total bases (28) in March and has had seven multiple-hit games, and has reached base in the last five games.
Additionally, Archuleta has hit in the leadoff spot in 21 games, including the last eight and 12 of the last 13 games. UNM is 13-8 when Archuleta is in the leadoff spot.
PUT THE PRESSURE ON
The Lobos have scored in the first inning in 11 games and scored in the second inning in 10 games while not allowing a run in the first two innings in 18 games overall.
UNM is outscoring opponents 26-10 in the second inning and 43-30 through the first two innings.
In addition, the Lobos are outscoring opponents 30-26 in the fifth and 17-7 in the sixth inning. On the season, UNM is outscoring opponents 146-132 (+14).
UNM is 6-1 when leading after the first, 10-1 after the second, 11-1 after the third, 12-2 when leading after the fourth, 11-2 after the fifth and 12-2 leading after the sixth.
UNM is 8-3 when scoring in the first inning and 11-4-1 when scoring first.
In the month of March, UNM is 3-1 when scoring in the first inning, 5-2 when scoring first and 7-3 in day games. The Lobos are 2-0 when leading after the first, 4-0 when leading after the second, 5-0 when leading after the third and again in the fourth, 6-0 when leading after the fifth and 7-0 when leading after the sixth. Further, the Lobos are outscoring opponents in the second, third, fourth, sixth and seventh in games played in March.
TWO OUTS, SO WHAT
Of UNM’s 146 runs, 68 (46.6%) 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.
Hayden Luderer’s double in the fifth inning of Sunday’s game against San José State that scored two runs and put UNM up 5-3 happened with two outs.
Ella Dawson and DeLeon lead the team with 11, two-out RBI with McKenzie third with 10 and Allie Williams fourth with eight.
Freshmen have contributed to 42 of the team’s 62 two-out RBI (67.7%).
Of UNM’s 231 hits, 69 have come with two outs (29.9%), with Williams 14-37 (37.8%) with two outs, DeLeon 11-28 (39.3%) and McKenzie 11-25 (44.0%).
TRENDING UP
The Lobos rank among the top teams in the Mountain West in several categories.
UNM ranks first in the conference in shutouts (six), sac bunts (24) and batters struck out looking (75, 29 more than the next MW team). The Lobos are second in opposing batting average (.260), batters struck out (188), team strikeouts per seven innings (6.2) and in walks (105), and third in fielding percentage (.967) with the third-fewest errors in the MW, as well as doubles (45).
McKenna Guest leads the conference in shutouts, batters struck out looking (31) and wins (11), while second in strikeouts with Natalie Fritz second in batters struck out looking (29). Guest is also fourth in ERA (2.32) and third in innings pitched (87.2). DeNae Vasquez-Dickson leads the MW in sac bunts (eight), Allie Williams is sixth in hits (39), Ashley Archuleta is tied for fourth in doubles (nine), tied for third in triples (three), tied for eighth in batting average, ninth in on-base percentage, tied for 10th in hits and tied for 14th in walks with Jessica DeLeon tied for 10th in walks.
ABOUT UCSD
The Tritons are 6-18 on the season, 4-7 at home and 4-5 in the Big West after sweeping UC Riverside in their last series. Two of their last three games have won to extra innings (5-4 in 10 and 2-1 in eight) after opening the series with a 6-0 win.
UCSD shares five common opponents with the Lobos in USD (UCSD lost 6-2), Boise State (UCSD lost 10-7), Utah State (UCSD lost 10-2 in five innings), San José State (UCSD lost 8-1 and 7-0) and Colorado State (UCSD won 5-2).
Statistically, UCSD is hitting .249 as a team behind 152 hits that include 25 doubles, two triples and six home runs. Morgan Eng leads the team with 20 hits with eight players at 10 or more hits this season, while Lily Hermosillo leads with a .317 batting average. Only Haley Garcia has started and played in all 24 games with 18 players making at least one start.
As a pitching staff, UCSD enters Tuesday’s game with a 6.84 ERA, led by a 4.25 ERA from India Caldwell. Caldwell has made a team-high 12 starts and 20 appearances, throwing three complete games with one shutout in 78.1 innings. Caldwell threw a complete game in the 6-0 win over UC Riverside, allowing two hits with seven strikeouts to one walk.
UCSD has used four pitchers with Callie Christian making the second-most starts with seven and Claire Adams throwing the second-most innings in the second-most appearances with 38.1 innings and 16 appearances.
Opponents are hitting .305 against UCSD with 192 hits, 145 runs scored, 31 doubles, six triples and 16 home runs. The staff has 108 strikeouts to 103 walks, has allowed 24 sacrifice hits and have hit 15 batters.
On the base paths, UCSD is 34-44 in stolen base attempts compared to 27-33 by opponents.