Lobos' Season Ends in Mesa
MESA, Ariz. – New Mexico homered twice to match the program single-season record and brought the tying run to the plate in both the eighth and ninth innings but couldn’t equalize as their season ended with a 6-3 loss to San Jose State on Wednesday at Sloan Park.
The Lobos conclude the year with a 30-23 overall record and a 17-13 mark in conference play — their third season in a row with an improvement in total wins and win percentage and first time cracking 30 wins since 2017.
Josh McAlister hit his 17th homer of the year as UNM took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second and Ethan Ott followed with his 16th of the year to trim the deficit to 3-5 in the fifth, but the Lobos didn’t scratch any other runs the rest of the way. With the 92nd and 93rd homers of the year in total for UNM, they’ve matched the UNM single-season program record set in 2003.
Will Asby, Khalil Walker and Karsen Waslefsky all added a pair of base knocks each to round of a nine-hit outing for UNM.
LHP Daxton Purser (3.2 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K) retired his first six faced in order and didn’t surrender an earned run but was tagged with the loss after an early Spartans four-spot in the top of the fourth that gave SJSU a lead it wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the way. RHP Josh Barnhouse (0.2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K), RHP Tommy White (4.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K) and RHP Luke Wiseman (0.2 IP) combined to hold the Spartans to just two runs over the next five frames to give the Lobos a chance to rally late.
This story will be updated.