The UNM baseball team will finally return home to the friendly confines of Santa Ana Star Field as it resumes conference play against San Jose State on Friday.
New Mexico (8-3, 3-0 MW) just finished up an eight-game road trip in which the team reeled off four straight wins to rebound from a shaky start and go 5-3 away from home.
The Lobos have been hitting the stitches off the baseball so far, averaging over 10 runs per contest. After putting up 59 runs in a three-game sweep over Air Force, UNM took down NMSU on Tuesday night, 8-2, in a neutral site game played in El Paso, Texas.
UNM had eight different batters register a hit against the Aggies, with first baseman Jack Zoellner going 3-for-4 at the plate and blasted a two-RBI
Runs may be harder to come by against San Jose State (6-5, 2-1 MW) though. SJSU right-hander Josh
As a team, the Spartans have allowed 3.36 runs per game, much lower than the output the Lobos have gotten used to putting up.
The teams have squared off against each other 21 times before, with the Lobos holding a 16-5 overall advantage in the series. UNM will try to extend its current seven-game home winning streak over the Spartans.
A player to keep an eye on this weekend could be Lobo third baseman Carl Stajduhar. He garnered Mountain West Player of the Week in the third week of the season after putting up some gaudy numbers.
The junior hit .550 from the dish and bombed three home runs during that timeframe, becoming the third UNM player in as many weeks to take home the honor.
The Lobos have only played three home games so far in the young season, but the team came out swinging with a three-game sweep over Binghamton to start things off.
UNM dominated the series by outscoring the Bearcats 29-12, with many of the runs coming by way of the long ball. New Mexico hit six home runs in the final two games, with four different Lobos homering in game number two alone.
As a team, New Mexico has launched 16 home runs in the 2017 campaign. Zoellner has sent six pitches over the wall to lead the way in the category.
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First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Friday, Mar. 10, followed by games on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. All of the games are scheduled to be aired on the Mountain West Network. ESPN Radio 101.7, the TEAM will also broadcast games one and three.
Robert Maler is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers football and men’s and women’s tennis. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @robert_maler.
