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by Connor Gilbert

Lobos Host Texas Tech for Midweek Rematch on Tuesday

Lobos Host Texas Tech for Midweek Rematch on TuesdayLobos Host Texas Tech for Midweek Rematch on Tuesday

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - New Mexico Baseball returns home from a successful Mountain West road trip in Vegas for four games this week, hosting Texas Tech (18-13, 5-7 Big 12) for a midweek rematch on Tuesday before another conference series with San Diego State (18-15, 7-2 MW) this weekend.

In their meeting March 24 in Lubbock, the Lobos were run-ruled in eight innings (12-2) to break up a string of back-to-back victories. UNM trails the all-time series with the Red Raiders 51-82-1 but has won three of the last five overall and four of the last five meetings in Albuquerque.

Tuesday’s game will be streamable via both the MW Network (GoLobos.com/Watch) and Altitude+ and televised on Altitude 2, with live stats available at GoLobos.com/BSBStats. Follow @UNMLoboBaseball on IG, X and Facebook for comprehensive coverage.

New Mexico Lobos (19-11-1, 5-3-1 MW)
Texas Tech Red Raiders (18-13, 5-7 Big 12)

ALL-TIME SERIES
• UNM is 51-82-1 against Texas Tech all-time and 30-26-1 against the Red Raiders in Lubbock. Tod Brown is 4-6 against TTU in his tenure at UNM.
• The Lobos have won three of the last five meetings between the two teams, with back-to-back wins (2024 and 2025) for the first time since 2015.
• In 2024, UNM fell 8-11 in the two teams’ first meeting in ABQ (3/5/2024) before thumping them on the road in Lubbock (17-3, 4/23/2024) to secure the season series split. They won their lone matchup with the Red Raiders in 2025 15-5 in eight innings (April 8) and fell 12-2 in eight innings in Lubbock on March 24.
• UNM has won four of the last five meetings between the two teams in Albuquerque.                                          
MOUNTAIN WEST RACE HEATING UP
With back-to-back series wins, the Lobos moved into sole possession of third place in the Mountain West standings with a 5-3-1 mark in conference matchups, behind San Diego State (18-15, 7-2 MW) in first place and Nevada (17-10, 6-3 MW) in second. They will face both those teams in Albuquerque in the next two weeks, hosting the Aztecs this weekend and the Wolf Pack the following weekend.
The top six teams in the MW standings qualify for the conference tournament May 20-23 in Mesa, Ariz. – UNM is looking to reach the tournament for the third season in a row after qualifying back-to-back for the first time since 2017.

LAST WEEKEND (at UNLV, 4/2-4)
•  New Mexico secured its second Mountain West series in a row -- and first on the road -- with a pair of wins over UNLV on Friday (7-6) and Saturday (12-2) after falling 15-10 in the series opener.
•  The Lobos hit .283 as a team (28-for-99) with 29 runs, eight home runs and a .444 slugging percentage. On the mound, the Lobos posted a 6.92 ERA over 27.0 innings, allowing 29 hits and 20 earned runs with 17 walks and 24 strikeouts.
•  Luke Mansy – who went 4-for-8 (.500) with a team-high seven runs and five walks while connecting on a triple and a homer – led the way for UNM, with Khalil Walker (4-for-10) batting .400 from the nine hole and Brodey Williams (.333) going 3-for-10 with a team-high seven RBI on a double and a homer. Karsen Waslefsky (.318) and Damian Garcia (.308) also batted above .300 on the weekend to round things out.
•  On the mound, RHP Ryan Castillo turned in a strong start in Saturday’s finale as the ‘Bos secured the series, tossing six innings while surrendering just one run to lower his season ERA to a miniscule 1.97 and his WHIP to 1.05.
•  Out of the bullpen, LHP Cooper Corkrean gave UNM 4.2 scoreless innings after needing to pick up Friday starter Cristian Mogen in Game Two, allowing just two hits and striking out five, while Luke Wiseman worked 2.0 innings with three strikeouts to earn the save in Friday’s series-tying victory. 
•  In his first game coming out of the pen this season, RHP Diego Alvarez earned the save on Saturday with three effective innings of relief, retiring the first six he faced while limiting the Rebels to just one unearned run in the bottom of the ninth.

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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 6-1 with a 1.97 ERA across eight starts – six 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 1.97 ERA would place him among the Top Five single-season ERAs in program history, tracking alongside marks such as Lloyd Randel (1.13, 1962) and Bob McAulay (1.44, 1968) – his six wins are already the most by a Lobo pitcher in a single season since Riley Egloff (7) in 2023.

LINEUP SOLIDIFYING
•  UNM has rolled with the same batting order and starting lineup for each of their last six games, going 4-1-1 in that span against conference foes Fresno State and UNLV after having not won two games in a row since March 3 previously. It’s their longest streak of games this year with the lineup not changing.
•  Prior to the last two series, the Lobos had dropped three weekend series in a row after sweeping their first three. They're now 5-3 in weekend series (3 or 4 games) on the season.
•  Akili Carris (.455), Khalil Walker (.450) and Luke Mansy (.368) are the hottest bats in the lineup in that six-game span. Carris has driven in a team-high 11 RBI in the last six games – including a season-high four RBI in Saturday’s finale – after going the previous 11 games without an RBI.

HOME SWEET HOME
•  The Lobos’ .750 win percentage at home so far this season (15-6-1) 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 .329 in home games and .258 on the road – Albuquerque native Gene Trujillo leads all Lobos in batting average (.403), on base percentage (.526) and extra base hits (14) in home games this year. 
•  Conversely, the Lobos’ pitching staff has a 5.52 ERA on the road and 6.97 at home, with opponents batting .269 against them on the road and .313 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 19-11-1 start, Head Coach Tod Brown is now above .500 win percentage in his tenure in Albuquerque with a 122-118-1 record.
•  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 .629 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).