New Mexico Baseball welcomes in-state rival New Mexico State (18-24, 8-13 C-USA) to Lobo Baseball Field for the third of four meetings between the two teams Tuesday evening in Albuquerque.
Tuesday's first pitch is set for a 4 p.m. MT -- the game will be available to stream via both Altitude TV and the MW Network and on broadcast on television on Altitude, with live stats available at GoLobos.com/BSBStats. Follow @UNMLoboBaseball on IG, X and Facebook for comprehensive coverage.
ALL-TIME SERIES
• With their first 4-0 season sweep of their in-state rivals since 2022 last season but an 0-2 record against them in 2026, The Lobos are 171-97 all-time against their rivals to the south, with a 80-34 record in home matchups and a 65-54 record in Las Cruces.
• Tod Brown is 11-6 against the Aggies in his tenure as UNM Head Coach. Current NMSU head coach Jake Angier was Brown’s pitching coach at North Dakota State for three seasons (2011-2013).
KARSEN WASLEFSKY NAMED BROOKS WALLACE AWARD SEMIFINALIST
New Mexico’s Karsen Waslefsky has made the cut as a semifinalist for the Brooks Wallace Award annually given to college baseball’s top shortstop, the College Baseball Foundation announced on Wednesday.
Waslefsky is one of 50 shortstops to be named as a semifinalist for the award, which honors the nation's top shortstop and will be presented by the College Baseball Foundation later this year. It is named for former Texas Tech shortstop Brooks Wallace, who played for the Red Raiders from 1977 to 1980. Wallace died of leukemia at the age of 27.
“Narrowing our list to even 50 is a difficult task to take on as there are so many deserving shortstops at midseason,“ said Larry Wallace, co-chair of the Brooks Wallace Award. “All these kids are piling up big offensive numbers with power. But just as important are the defensive skills and how well they field their position.”
In his second year at UNM, Waslefsky has started 38 of 40 possible games at shortstop for the Lobos this season and is batting .288 on the season with 35 runs, 30 RBI, seven doubles, five homers and a triple. He’s fielding at a .976 clip with 118 assists and 44 putouts on 166 opportunities and has stolen 10 bases on 11 attempts.
LAST WEEKEND (at Washington State, 4/24-26)
• New Mexico went 1-2 on the road at Washington State, picking up a 4-3 win on Saturday after dropping Friday (10-3) and Sunday (13-3).
• As a team, the Lobos hit .257 (26-for-101) with 10 runs, three doubles and one home run while drawing 11 walks over the three games. They recorded at least eight hits in each contest, including nine-hit efforts in both Saturday’s win and Sunday’s finale.
• Khalil Walker led the lineup with a .400 average (4-for-10) and a double, while Luke Mansy also finished with four hits (.364) and reached base at a .417 clip. Akili Carris added four hits of his own (.333) with two RBI, and Lenny Ashby drove in a team-high three runs while posting a .462 on-base percentage. Lachlan Maude went 2-for-4 (.500) in limited action, and Anthony Diaz scored a team-best three runs.
• On the mound, the Lobos combined for 16 strikeouts across 24.1 innings. Ryan Castillo led the starters with 6.0 innings and four strikeouts, allowing three runs, while Cooper Corkrean earned the win in Saturday’s game with 2.0 scoreless innings and three strikeouts out of the bullpen. Matt Cornelius also contributed a scoreless inning in relief.
RYAN CASTILLO: THE ACE
• RHP Ryan Castillo has anchored the Lobos’ rotation with one of the most consistent starts to a season in recent program history, going 7-2 with a 3.59 ERA across 11 starts – seven of which in a more challenging pitching environment at elevation in Albuquerque.
• He has delivered six outings of at least five innings with one earned run or fewer, including scoreless efforts vs Northern Colorado (5.2 IP) and Fresno State (6.0 IP) and a seven-inning, one-run outing vs. St. Thomas.
• Castillo has also reached double-digit strikeouts twice, sitting down 10 vs Tarleton State (3/7) and Abilene Christian (3/21).
• Castillo’s current 3.59 ERA would place him among the Top 10 single-season ERAs in program history, tracking alongside marks such as Lloyd Randel (1.13, 1962) and Bob McAulay (1.44, 1968) – his seven wins are already the most by a Lobo pitcher in a single season since 2016.
• Against SDSU, Castillo threw the first nine-inning complete game by a Lobo since 2018, surrendering just three earned runs on six hits while striking out eight as the Lobos clinched the series.
HOME SWEET HOME
• The Lobos’ .683 win percentage at home so far this season (20-9-1) is their best in a season with 11 or more games at home since UNM’s first year playing at Lobo Field in 2013 when they went 14-2 in home matchups (.875).
• As a team, UNM is batting .326 in home games and .258 on the road – Albuquerque native Gene Trujillo leads all Lobos in batting average (.374), slugging (.636), on base percentage (.496) and extra base hits (19) in home games this year.
• Conversely, the Lobos’ pitching staff has a 5.52 ERA on the road and 6.84 at home, with opponents batting .269 against them on the road and .300 in Albuquerque.
RIVALRY GAME RE-SCHEDULED
• New Mexico Baseball will face New Mexico State on May 12 at Lobo Baseball Field as a makeup for last Tuesday’s game that was postponed due to illness impacting NMSU’s roster, with first pitch set for a 4 p.m. MT.
• It will be the fourth and final meeting between the two teams this season after an April 14 matchup in Las Cruces and another in Albuquerque on April 28.
BROWN KEEPS ON WINNING
• With New Mexico’s 25-17-1 record so far this year, Head Coach Tod Brown is now above .500 win percentage in his tenure in Albuquerque with a 130-124-1 (.512) record. He's three wins away from getting to .500 in his 19-year career (471-474-1).
• The Lobos have increased their winning percentage from the year before in each of the last three seasons (21-33 in 2022, 26-25 in 2023, 28-26 in 2024, 30-23 in 2025). They’re on pace to do it again this year with a .593 win percentage.
ASHBY’S BIG RETURN
After spending the 2024 season at Kansas and winning the NCAA D-II Championship with Tampa in 2025, Lenny Junior Ashby is once more a Lobo for his final year of collegiate eligibility. The Aruban outfielder was a two-time All-MW selection in his first two seasons at UNM in 2022 and 2023, batting for a .361 average across 105 appearances in that span to go with 36 doubles, 26 homers, 110 RBI and 88 runs scored.
In his four years of collegiate baseball, Ashby has batted .325 in 205 games, driving in 165 runs and scoring 145 more while hitting 51 doubles, four triples and 36 homers.
SUPER SENIORS ABOUND
UNM boasts six graduate seniors on this year’s roster – OF Lenny Junior Ashby, RHP Josh Barnhouse, LHP Matthew Cornelius, OF Garrett Rede, LHP Matthew Romero and OF Khalil Walker – with Barnhouse, Cornelius, Romero and Walker all returning from last season. In total, the Lobos have 18 seniors on roster, the most Coach Tod Brown has had on a team in Albuquerque.
N.M. INFLUENCE
This year’s Lobos include 10 players with roots in the state of New Mexico:
| # | Name | Position | Hometown | Previous School |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Reid Jacobson | INF | Albuquerque, N.M. | La Cueva HS |
| 6 | Garrett Rede | OF | Rio Rancho, N.M. | Rio Rancho HS / Regis |
| 7 | Tommy White | RHP | Albuquerque, N.M. | Cibola HS / Illinois / Pima CC |
| 11 | Matthew Cornelius | LHP | Zuni, N.M. | St. Pius X / Pima CC / AZ St. |
| 13 | Matthew Romero | LHP | Albuquerque, N.M. | Sandia HS / NM St |
| 14 | Akili Carris | INF | Albuquerque, N.M. | La Cueva HS |
| 22 | Seth Lee | RHP | Rio Rancho, N.M. | Rio Rancho HS / Pima CC |
| 39 | Ryan Castillo | RHP | Los Lunas, N.M. | Los Lunas HS |
| 43 | Gene Trujillo | 1B | Albuquerque, N.M. | St. Pius X |
| 48 | Jacob Gergen | RHP | Albuquerque, N.M. | Hope Christian |
Of those 10 players, six are from Albuquerque, with two from nearby Rio Rancho and another from Los Lunas. Five returned to Albuquerque from different institutions, with Matthew Romero transferring from New Mexico State before last season.
A LOOK AT THE SCHEDULE
- The Lobos’ 51-game slate features 35 home matchups at Lobo Baseball Field – the most in a single season since the facility’s opening – and a 30-game Mountain West schedule as the league expands to nine teams for the first time.
- Should the Lobos stand among the top six teams in the Mountain West standings upon the conclusion of that weekend, they’ll earn a berth to the expanded MWC Baseball Championships May 20-23, hosted in Mesa, Ariz. for the second year in a row. The winner earns the conference’s automatic berth into the NCAA Championships.
TOP BATTING TEAM IN THE NATION IN 2025
New Mexico led the entirety of NCAA D-I in team batting average (.337) and doubles per game (2.79) at the conclusion of the 2026 season, capping off a historic year that saw the Lobos rank among the Top 20 teams in the nation in seven different offensive categories. Four different Lobos ranked among the Top 100 in the nation in individual batting average -- Khalil Walker (#23, .397), Jordy Oriach (#29, .395), Josh McAlister (#78, .371) and Ethan Ott (#91, .368) -- they ranked Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 5 in the Mountain West.
UNM’s huge offensive year also saw the Lobos match a program record with 93 homers and notch the second-highest team slugging (.574) and sixth-best on-base percentage (.425) in school history.
| Stat | Rank | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Batting Average | 1 | 0.337 |
| Home Runs Per Game | 16 | 1.75 |
| Doubles Per Game | 1 | 2.79 |
| Total Doubles | 4 | 148 |
| Triples Per Game | 69 | 0.26 |
| Total Triples | 69 | 14 |
| Slugging Percentage | 3 | 0.574 |
| On Base Percentage | 13 | 0.425 |
| Scoring | 8 | 9.2 |
| Fielding Percentage | 98 | 0.973 |
ESTABLISHED HITTING
UNM holds the nation’s 2nd-ranked batting average since 2016, a .309 clip in the last 10 seasons. The Lobos were NCAA D1 batting champs in 2025 with a .337 team average.
| 2016-25 NCAA D-1 BATTING AVERAGES | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | AB | H | BA |
| 1 | Jackson St. | 16335 | 5097 | 0.312 |
| 2 | New Mexico | 17588 | 5441 | 0.309 |
| 3 | Virginia | 19036 | 5806 | 0.305 |
| 4 | New Mexico St. | 17907 | 5461 | 0.305 |
| 5 | Alabama St. | 17737 | 5387 | 0.304 |
| 6 | Air Force | 17988 | 5457 | 0.303 |
| 7 | Georgia Tech | 19212 | 5823 | 0.303 |
| 8 | Wofford | 18418 | 5572 | 0.302 |
| 9 | Morehead St. | 18696 | 5634 | 0.301 |
| 10 | Austin Peay | 18455 | 5538 | 0.300 |
| 11 | Arizona | 19832 | 5933 | 0.299 |
| 12 | Louisville | 19551 | 5848 | 0.299 |
| 13 | UNLV | 17608 | 5266 | 0.299 |
| 14 | UTSA | 17887 | 5300 | 0.296 |
| 15 | UNC Greensboro | 18160 | 5380 | 0.296 |
| 16 | Texas Tech | 19841 | 5874 | 0.296 |
| 17 | ETSU | 17611 | 5200 | 0.295 |
| 18 | Fresno St. | 18270 | 5394 | 0.295 |
| 19 | Grand Canyon | 15045 | 4424 | 0.294 |
| 20 | Arizona St. | 18414 | 5396 | 0.293 |
ROSTER OVERVIEW
UNM’s 2026 roster includes 18 returning players with 18 newcomers – the Lobos return seven position players who appeared in at least 25 games in 2025 while losing seven.
– Of the Lobos’ newcomers, three are freshmen and 15 are transfers – nine transfers are from junior colleges and six from four-year institutions.
– 29 players are upperclassmen – 18 seniors and 11 juniors – the most seniors Brown has had on a roster in his time at UNM.
BROWN'S PROGRAM-BUILDING RESUME
– In his first five seasons as head coach at North Dakota State, Brown’s teams improved their winning percentage in each season, going from 15-30 (.333) in his first season in 2008 to 40-20 (.667) in 2012 and finishing each of the next nine seasons above .400. The Bison reached the Summit League tournament eight times in that span, advancing to NCAA Regionals in 2014 and 2021.
– Brown coached the Bison to 40-win seasons in 2012 and 2021.
– In Brown’s first four years at UNM, the Lobos have improved similarly, winning more games and posting a higher win percentage in each of the last three seasons. They went 21-33 (.389) in 2022, 26-25 (.510) in 2023, 26-25 (.510) in 2024 and 30-23 (.566) in 2025.
– In 18 seasons as a Head Coach, Brown has finished the season above .400 15 times and above .500 nine times – the only three seasons in which he’s finished below .400 were his first two years in Fargo (2008, 2009) and his first season in Albuquerque (2022).