Following New Mexico’s first Mountain West series loss, head coach Erica Beach said her squad struggled against one of the best pitchers in the conference, but that the offense must maintain its confidence against a potent Colorado State team.
“I think our lineup is going to rebound pretty quickly,” Beach said. “Making sure we have good at bats and making the plays we need to make. But for the most part, the team is still in a good place.”
UNM was held dormant against Jill Compton, who has the best ERA in the league, only allowing 2.11 runs per contest. Fresno State relied on pitching throughout the three-game sweep of the Lobos, never allowing UNM to score more than one run in any game.
The Lobos will turn to one of its top hitters in Jasmine Casados to produce more run support. The sophomore shortstop received the Mountain West Player of the Week award following the team’s series against Nevada, where she hit .625, collected three RBIs and four walks.
“She’s been a consistent force in the lineup for us,” Beach said. “She’s had some clutch hits for us, played some solid defense for us, and she has turned out to be just an outstanding ballplayer.”
Beach said that in addition to scoring runs, the pitching staff will need to be on-point against Colorado State (21-20, 2-7 Mountain West). Although CSU’s run average is the second worst in the conference, the Rams have tallied the fourth most runs in the Mountain West.
“They always have a pretty tough lineup; they always score a lot of runs, and that’s what they’ve always done,” Beach said. “We know what to expect.”
Although New Mexico (22-19, 6-6 Mountain West) dropped to .500 in conference play after being swept by the second-place Bulldogs, the Lobos are only four games behind San Diego State, the team sitting atop the conference at 10-2 (27-14 overall).
UNM is currently tied with UNLV (20-20, 6-6 MW) for fifth place, even though the squad has only dropped one series in Mountain West play.
Beach said she can’t let her squad get down about a single series because there are plenty of games left to be played.
“We can’t let three games determine how we’re going to finish the end of the season,” Beach said.
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The Lobos will need to come out strong in the first game against Colorado if they want a shot at taking the series from the Rams, she said.
“We have to flat-out outplay them,” Beach said. “We have to come out gunning for game one and throw everything we have at them. Then we have to do the same for games two and three.”
Liam Cary-Eaves is the assistant sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at assistantsports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Liam_CE.
