ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The Lobos open up conference play at home against Mountain West newcomer Grand Canyon in a three-game series starting Friday.
SCHEDULE
FRIDAY @ 6 p.m. | LIVE STATS
SATURDAY @ 2 p.m. | LIVE STATS
SUNDAY @ 12 p.m. | LIVE STATS
All three games will be on the Mountain West Network with live stats available, while there is also free admission to the games.
UNM enters the series 12-13 on the season with GCU sitting at 27-0. The Lopes are currently ranked 23rd in the ESPN poll, 17th in the NFCA poll, 21st by Softball America and 22nd by D1 Softball. Friday will be the fifth game against a ranked opponent this season. The Lobos have faced the Lopes six other times with the Lobos last winning in 2020.
MIRACLE AT THE PLATE
Sophomore Miracle McKenzie got the bat going at the Mardi Gras Mambo and it continued ever since.
McKenzie has six multiple-hit games and six multiple-RBI games, including a season-high three hits in the series finale at ACU behind a career-high two home runs and five RBI.
McKenzie was named MW Player of the Week on March 9 after leading the Lobos with a .538 batting average, 1.538 slugging percentage, .684 on-base percentage behind a team-high seven hits, as well as a team-high seven RBI and four home runs. The sophomore also drew a team-high five walks.
The California native hit two home runs in a game for the second time this season against Samford on March 8, giving the Lobos a 1-0 lead in the first and a 4-1 lead in the eighth, which proved to be the difference in the 4-3 win.
McKenzie has recorded an RBI in the last three games with three RBI in two of the last three.
She is currently on a four-game hitting streak and a streak of reaching base in the last seven games, and previously had a nine-game streak of reaching base that spanned from Feb. 14 to Feb. 28.
The first baseman leads the team in slugging percentage (.857), home runs (eight), doubles (seven), total bases (54), on-base percentage (.474), batting average (.365) and is tied for the team lead in walks (11).
McKenzie leads the conference in home runs per game (0.32) and is 83rd in the NCAA and is tied for the lead in the Mountain West in home runs and is 52nd in the NCAA. She also leads the MW and is 69th in slugging percentage and third in the MW in total bases.
Through 25 games, she has already surpassed her doubles, runs scored and home runs from her freshman season and has improved her batting average from .275 to .365, her slugging percentage from .420 to .857 and her on-base percentage from .384 to .474.
WILLIAMS AT THE TOP OF THE LINEUP
Freshman Briana Williams has started 23 games this season, leading off the lineup in 12. When the outfielder isn’t hitting leadoff, Williams has been second in the lineup in nine games and hit ninth in two games.
Williams is fourth in hits with 20, but leads the team with two triples, 21 runs scored and eight stolen bases. She is third in on-base percentage (.368), fourth in walks (six), batting average (.294) and total bases (25) and fifth in slugging percentage (.368).
Williams recorded a steal in five consecutive games spanning from Feb. 21 against Abilene Christian to Feb. 28 against Tarleton State and is 8-8 on the season.
Williams reached base in seven consecutive games, starting with Mississippi State on Feb. 7 and Northwestern State on Feb. 14, which included two multi-hit games.
The Texas native has six multiple-hit games, all with two hits. She had a bases-clearing triple for three RBI in the win against Houston Christian on Feb. 28.
She earned her first start against Northwestern State on Feb. 7 and has started every game since, with 15 starts as the designated player, seven starts in left field and a game in right field.
Allie Williams has hit second in eight games, third in eight games and cleanup in four games.
The sophomore leads the team with 21 RBI and in hits (24) and sac flies (four). She is second in total bases (41), doubles (five), home runs (four), third in batting average (.316) and slugging percentage (.539). Williams had a 15-game streak of reaching base end in the last game at New Mexico State and a 10-game hitting streak that spanned from Feb. 20 to March 6. Williams hit her first home run against Abilene Christian in the fourth inning of game two that gave UNM a 6-5 lead and added a home run against Houston Christian on Feb. 28 and on the second at-bat of the game at UTEP on March 3. She hit her fourth home run of the season against South Alabama.
She has recorded a team-high six multiple-RBI games, four with two RBI and twice with three RBI, and is tied for the team lead with six multiple-hit games with four games with two hits and two games with three hits.
HOLD THE LEAD
UNM is 10-2 when holding a lead after the third and fourth innings, 9-2 when leading after the fifth inning and 7-0 when leading after six.
The Lobos are outscoring their opponents 110-101: 17-11 in the second inning, 13-11 in the third inning, 29-20 in the fourth inning, 12-11 in the sixth inning and 4-2 in extra innings.
UNM was good when holding a lead last season: 9-5 when leading after the first, 13-6 after the second, 15-3 after the third, 16-4 when leading after the fourth, 15-2 after the fifth and 17-3 leading after the sixth.
BIG INNINGS
UNM has scored four runs in an inning 11 times this season, four of which came in the Abilene Christian series. UNM scored five runs in both the first and fourth innings against Houston Christian on Feb. 28.
The Lobos scored a season-best nine runs in the fourth inning against South Alabama after scoring seven runs in the second inning. UNM scored seven runs behind two home runs in the second inning, all with two outs, ultimately scoring seven runs on six hits and sent 10 batters to the plate. The Lobos exceeded the second-inning production with nine runs on seven hits in the fourth inning. Of the nine runs in the inning, seven were scored with two outs with four of the seven hits coming with two outs.
The Lobos scored four runs in the fourth inning of game one, four runs in the second and fourth inning of game two and four runs in the sixth inning of game three at ACU.
In the second inning of game two at ACU, the Lobos hit three consecutive doubles to score three runs with all four runs in the inning coming with two outs.
The Lobos scored five runs on two home runs in the first inning against HCU and five runs on three hits in the fourth inning.
UNM also scored four runs in the seventh inning of the season opener against Baylor, four runs in the third inning against Northwestern State on Feb. 14 and four runs in the seventh inning against UTEP on Feb. 27.
For comparison, New Mexico scored four or more runs in an inning in six games last season, including 13 runs in the fifth inning against Texas Southern on Feb. 23.
TWO OUTS, SO WHAT?
Of UNM’s 110 runs, 49 (44.5%) have come with two outs, including eight games with multiple runs scored with two outs.
Fifteen of Miracle McKenzie’s 20 RBI on the season have come with two outs, as have six of Jessica DeLeon’s eight and five of Gabrielle Briones’ 10.
DeLeon drove in the game-winning run against UTEP on Feb. 27 with two outs.
UNM was 14-21 in game two at Abilene Christian with two outs with 10 of the 13 runs coming with two outs in the inning.
Against South Alabama, UNM was 10-16 with two outs and 14 of the 16 runs were scored with two outs.
McKenzie is 12-25 (.480) with two outs with Briones 8-21 (.381).
NO NEWCOMER NERVES
There are 10 freshmen on the roster this season with nine playing in a game to date and eight getting at least one start.
Briana Williams has played in all 25 games with 23 starts, while Estrella Rowe has played in 25 with 24 starts and Caitlin Benningfield playing in 16 games with 12 starts and has also made 12 appearances in the circle with seven starts. Melanie Macias earned her first start at the designated player in the Feb. 21 game at Abilene Christian and has started two games, MiaLani Ocampo has started four games at second while playing in 13 and Tenzly Martin and Alyssa Hensgen made their first start against Mississippi State on March 7.
Benningfield has thrown a team-high 58.2 innings and leads the pitching staff with six wins, a 2.15 ERA, 59 strikeouts while allowing 12 walks.
The freshman has struck out six batters in three games and registered eight on Feb. 21 at Abilene Christian and struck out a season-high 13 in the win against Samford, the most by a Lobo freshman pitcher since 2013.
Benningfield also leads the Mountain West in strikeouts and is second in strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.92).
ABOUT THE OPPONENT
Grand Canyon is hitting .324 on the season behind 216 hits and five players with 25 or more hits. Raegan Holtorf and Sydney McCray lead the team with 27 hits with Jada Cooper leading with 24 RBI and Addison Shifflett leading with a .410 batting average and .738 slugging percentage. Of the 216 hits, GCU has hit 35 doubles, seven triples and 33 home runs, led by six home runs from Cooper.
On the bases, the Lopes are 35-39 in stolen base attempts with McCray 14-14.
In the circle, GCU’s pitching staff holds a 1.34 ERA with Taryn Batterton making a team-high 10 starts and throwing three complete games in a team-high 49.0 innings. The seven pitchers have combined for 169 strikeouts to 34 walks with Oakley Vickers striking out a staff-high 51 to seven walks in 47.0 innings, 16 appearances and eight starts. GCU’s ERA is the best in the MW and fifth in the NCAA.