The UNM baseball team finally kicked a four-game losing streak Sunday when it pounded out a 5-3 victory over Texas Tech University.
Led by pitcher Aaron Smith, UNM (1-4) recovered from Saturday's 13-4 loss to Texas Tech with a strong offense and an iron defense in the first seven innings. The Lobos did not allow a single hit until the sixth inning and exhausted the Red Raider's pitching staff as they went through four pitchers.
Meanwhile, Smith pitched a near perfect game, allowing only one hit and no runs until he left in the top of the ninth inning and was relieved by Kevin Letz.
Smith showed constant improvement throughout the game despite walking the leadoff batter in the first inning. He found the strike zone consistently with five strikeouts and relied on his teammates to come up with the big plays.
Smith said the win was what the team really needed to begin the season. He said he wants to work on throwing more strikes for the next game but added that he felt good about winning.
The Lobos showed more aggressiveness at the plate and on the bag, running and making contact at the plate. Defensively, outfielders Donny Sevieri and Julio Guerrero made several crucial plays that kept the game's momentum in UNM's favor, including a diving left field catch by Sevieri in the first inning.
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"We made some key plays in the outfield and that's big," head coach Rich Alday said. "We always tell them we got to make the big plays and today we had several."
Every player made contact at the plate, something that has been missing for the Lobos since the start of the season. The team also took advantage of several Red Raider mistakes, scoring on errors in both the first and fifth innings.
It wasn't until the ninth inning when the Lobos staggered and ended up with two errors, allowing Texas Tech to build a three-run rally, starting with third baseman Nick Blankenship scoring on a steal. The Red Raiders still weren't able to dig out of the hole and UNM stopped the rally short.
The game wasn't without its downside. Late in the fifth inning, starting catcher Todd Stroud was injured as he ran to first after an error on the play. Alday said Stroud twisted his ankle, but Stroud's playing status is still uncertain.
Alday said his team accomplished what they hadn't been able to do Saturday and he wants to carry it over to the last game against Texas Tech today.
"We didn't do very many good things yesterday and today we talked about the things we had to do," he said.
The Lobos play Texas Tech today at 1 p.m. at Lobo Field.
