Lobos Head to GCU for Final MW Series

New Mexico Baseball hits the road for its final Mountain West series of the season this weekend, taking on Grand Canyon (17-28, 7-11 MW) in the first conference series between the two teams this weekend (May 8-10) at Brazell Field.

Sitting in fifth in the conference standings, New Mexico (26-20-1, 11-9-1 MW) looks to lock up its third consecutive appearance in the MW Tournament with either a sweep or a series win and a loss from either San Jose State or UNLV.

School	MW	CPCT.	Overall	PCT.	Streak
San Diego State	13-5	.722	30-19	.612	L1
Air Force	14-7	.667	23-22	.511	W2
Washington State	13-8	.619	25-23	.521	L2
Nevada	12-9	.571	23-21	.523	L4
New Mexico	11-9-1	.548	26-20-1	.564	L2
UNLV	7-11	.389	26-22	.542	L1
San José State	7-11	.389	20-25	.444	W1
Grand Canyon	7-11	.389	17-28	.378	L1
Fresno State	2-15-1	.139	13-32-1	.293	L1

Once this weekend’s series wraps up, the Lobos get a bye next weekend after facing New Mexico State in their regular season finale at home on Tuesday. Should they find themselves among the Top Six in the conference standings, they’ll head to Mesa, Ariz. for the Mountain West Tournament May 21-24.

All of this weekend's series will be free to stream via the MW Network at GoLobos.com/Watch, with live stats available at GoLobos.com/BSBStats. Follow @UNMLoboBaseball on IG, X and Facebook for comprehensive coverage.

ALL-TIME SERIES
• After snapping a five-game losing streak to the Lopes with a 12-10 midweek win at home last season, UNM leads the all-time series with GCU 25-16, with a 12-5 record in matchups at home and an 11-10 record on the road (1-0 neutral).
• This will be the first games between the two teams as Mountain West foes.

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 (vs. Air Force, 5/1-3)
•  New Mexico dropped its third series in a row last weekend, winning the series opener 9-7 but falling 11-1 and 8-4 in the next two games.

•  UNM hit .312 as a team over the three-game span against Air Force, finishing with 34 hits, 14 runs, six doubles, one triple, one home run, 13 RBIs and a .394 on-base percentage. The Lobos drew 14 walks while striking out 17 times, but were limited to 9-for-41 (.220) with runners in scoring position and 4-for-29 (.138) with two outs.

•  Antonio Gianni led UNM at the plate, hitting .500 with a team-high six hits, two doubles, an RBI and a .538 OBP. Karsen Waslefsky hit .429 with three hits and two RBIs, while Akili Carris hit .385 and led the Lobos in runs scored with five while adding a double, triple, home run, two RBIs, two walks and a team-best .846 slugging percentage. Brodey Williams also hit .375 with three hits, two runs and two walks, while Luke Mansy hit .333 with four hits and two runs. Lenny Ashby added four hits, and Gene Trujillo finished with three hits, a double, two RBIs and two runs.

•  On the mound, UNM posted an 8.00 team ERA across 27 innings, allowing 29 hits, 26 runs, 24 earned, 10 walks and striking out 23. The bullpen had several scoreless outings: Ethin Woltz earned UNM’s win with 3.1 scoreless innings, allowing one hit with one walk and three strikeouts; Matt Cornelius threw two hitless, scoreless innings with three strikeouts; Cooper Corkrean added 2.2 scoreless frames with one hit allowed and three strikeouts; and Josh Barnhouse worked 2.1 scoreless innings. Ryan Castillo struck out a staff-high eight over six innings in his start.

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 26-20-1 record so far this year, Head Coach Tod Brown is now above .500 win percentage in his tenure in Albuquerque with a 131-127-1 (.512) record. He's four wins away from getting to .500 in his 19-year career (472-477-1).
•  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 .564 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).