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The New Mexico baseball team cannot afford to lose any ground in the Mountain West Conference standings.
The Lobos are now tied with San Diego State for first place in the conference with identical 17-16 (8-4 MWC) records.
This weekend UNM faces Fresno State (8-20, 3-7 MWC) in a three-game series at Lobo Field starting today, while the Aztecs face a three-game series at Air Force.
UNM head coach Ray Birmingham said his team needs the student body to come out and show their support for a real home-field advantage.
“All of them are going to be big from here on out,” he said. “We’re the defending conference champs, and everyone brings their A-game against us. Every series, including this one, is going to be important.”
Relief pitcher Josh Walker, who leads the team in saves with six, said these will be the most pressuring games for this season.
“It’s going to be really important compared to any other game — this is a lot of what it takes for a playoff appearance,” he said.
“We’re coming into the series looking for a sweep.”
On Tuesday UNM split a doubleheader with No. 10 Arkansas, winning the first game 3-0 before dropping the second 4-3. Birmingham said the team could have easily swept the Razorbacks, but he chose to save some of his pitchers for the upcoming series against the Bulldogs.
“I thought we did really well. I thought we could’ve taken both of them easily,” he said. “We have a big weekend series for conference this weekend, and we didn’t want to use any pitchers that would pitch a lot this weekend. Had we done that, we probably would’ve shut them out both games. You’ve got to pick your poison. You have to pick the games that are most important.”
As for the Bulldogs, they’ve lost seven out of their last 10 conference series. Fresno State’s last win came against Pacific University, a non-conference 4-3 decision on April 2. In 2008 the Bulldogs stumbled out of the gate, starting the season 8-14, but they went on to win the College World Series.
“Records don’t mean anything until the end,” Birmingham said.
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At the start of the year, the Lobos cost themselves several games with mental errors. Routine fielding plays and poor base running were the sources of the problem, but the team has cut down on those mistakes, Walker said.
“Starting the beginning of the season we were really shaky, just like last year. It’s been a gradual improvement,” he said. “We stopped thinking so much. At the beginning of the year we were overthinking a lot, and now we’ve just been having fun together.”
Fresno State is last in the conference for batting average (.251), and outfielder Aaron Judge is the only Bulldog batting above .300.
In comparison, the Lobos lead the Mountain West in hitting with a team average of .318 and have six hitters batting .300 or better.
Baseball vs. Fresno State
Today at 3:05 p.m.
Saturday at 1:05 p.m.
Sunday at noon
Lobo Field
