The ending to New Mexico’s long road trip did not go as planned as the club has watched its first-place lead shrink to just 0.5 games.
For the first time in the 2016 campaign, UNM dropped a Mountain West series after being away from Santa Ana Star Field for seven games, the Lobos’ longest stint away from home.
The series started off with a rough outing from Friday night’s starter Colton Thomson, who gave up nine runs without making it through the third inning. The Lobos would drop the series opener by an 11-6 count.
UNM would bounce back on Saturday afternoon behind the arm of sophomore righty Tyler Stevens. The Colorado native through eight innings of one-run ball in the 6-2 victory to even up the series at one apiece.
James Harrington received the nod on Sunday, but was unable to make it past the fourth inning despite early run support. It was the sixth time the sophomore has had a game in which his ERA was six or higher.
“UNLV is hot and we are a road wear team that needs to get home,” said head coach Ray Birmingham in a release. “We will regroup.”
Though Harrington was only tagged with his second loss of the season, it was a big one as Fresno State (32-17, 19-8 MW) took home a 4-3 victory over SDSU on Sunday to tighten the Mountain West race.
Things started off on a positive note for UNM in the rubber match of the UNLV series. Jared Mang got the Lobos on the board in both the second and third innings. In the top of the second, the freshman leftfielder grounded into a fielder’s choice to plate Jack Zoellner, and later scored Zoellner again in the third on an infield single.
The early 2-0 lead New Mexico obtained would come to an abrupt close as the Rebels jumped all over Stevens and Carson Schneider, who came in for relief.
Schneider, the usual Sunday starter, started the final game on the bench and did not fare well. The junior southpaw worked his shortest outing of the season only throwing 2.1 innings, allowing eight hits, and six runs, though only three of which were earned.
UNM tallied one more run in the ninth inning, but the 10-3 deficit after seven was too much to overcome as they fell 10-4.
The Lobos will begin its final home series on Friday against Nevada with first pitch set for 6 p.m.
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League Race
The Mountain West Conference is quite divided with the top four teams at .500 or better, and the bottom three well below the .500 plateau.
With the series win, UNLV rounds out the bottom of the top-four with its 12-12 (22-25 overall) record.
Nevada also garnered a victory on Sunday afternoon, improving to 16-8 in league play and 27-20 overall.
If the Lobos don’t turn their recent woes around, they may witness the regular season crown slip away. UNM has lost five of its last seven games, all on the road.
However, New Mexico has certainly been a much better team in front of the Lobo faithful with a 15-6 record at Santa Ana Star Field.
Though UNM still has control of its own destiny, there are others nipping at the bit to claim the top spot.
|
Schools |
MW Record |
MW Percentage |
Overall Record |
PCT |
|
New Mexico (1) |
17-7-0 |
.708 |
32-18-0 |
.640 |
|
Fresno State (2) |
19-8-0 |
.704 |
32-17-0 |
.653 |
|
Nevada (3) |
16-8-0 |
.667 |
27-20-0 |
.574 |
|
UNLV (4) |
12-12-0 |
.500 |
22-25-0 |
.468 |
|
Air Force (5) |
9-13-0 |
.409 |
24-20-0 |
.545 |
|
San Diego State (6) |
6-16-0 |
.250 |
14-32-0 |
.304 |
|
San Jose (7) |
6-21-0 |
.222 |
15-33-0 |
.313 |
Liam Cary-Eaves is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Liam_CE.
