Lobos Host Nevada for Final Home Series May 10-12

Fresh off back-to-back weekend series wins that moved them from fourth to tied for first in the Mountain West standings, New Mexico Baseball (25-21, 14-10 MW) hosts third-place Nevada (21-23, 13-11 MW) for what might be its most pivotal weekend series yet in its final home games of the season May 10-12.

Sunday’s series finale will be Senior Day at Santa Ana Star Field, with 13 seniors being honored pregame ahead of their final game in Albuquerque.

After weathering an eight-game skid that dropped them below .500 and three conference weekend series losses in a row, the Lobos have won seven of their last 10 to surge from the MW Tournament bubble to viable contenders for their first regular-season conference title since 2017 with six games left to play. Having already won the most conference games in a single season since then, they’re now tied for first in the league standings with Fresno State (27-21, 14-10 MW) for the first time this year – the best the Lobos have finished in the conference race since that 2017 title was fifth last year.

The only team in the league that has won seven of its last 10, the Lobos have a chance to clinch a spot in the MW Tournament if they sweep all three games this weekend. They’ll likely need to take at least two of three in both weekend series they have left to give themselves a shot at holding off the Bulldogs – who hold the tiebreaker with a weekend series win over UNM April 12-14 in their lone meeting this season – for the top seed in the MW Tournament.

UNM went 2-2 last week but won the all-important weekend series on the road at UNLV (15-8, 8-13, 14-2) in emphatic fashion, turning a 4-2 ballgame into a 14-2 run-rule victory with 10 runs on 10 consecutive two-out hits in the top of the seventh. It’s the second dramatic – and statistically improbable – finish in as many Sunday’s for the Lobos, who completed a ninth-inning rally over San Diego State the week prior with a walk-off grand slam from Devon Dixon. They’re the only MW team that has won seven of their last 10.

Meanwhile, the Wolf Pack (21-23, 13-11 MW) were inactive last weekend but are only one game behind the Lobos in the standings and could flip the script on them with a weekend series win. Nevada has won at least two out of three in seven of their nine conference series so far,  In their last conference action, they took three of four from Air Force – the first being a makeup game – on the road to improve to 4-2 against the Falcons on the season. 

Heading into this weekend, UNM is batting .325 on the season as a team with an OPS of .957 while averaging 9.43 runs and 12.22 hits per nine innings to lead the league in batting average, slugging, on base percentage, runs, hits, RBI, total bases and walks. Khalil Walker (.410) and Jake Holland (.384) have the No. 1 and No. 2 batting averages in the Mountain West — Holland also leads the league in slugging (.830) and ranks second in RBI (55) and HR (15) while Walker leads the league in OBP (.518). Reed Spenrath leads the league in triples (4) and ranks third in OBP (. 474), fourth in slugging (.680), seventh in HR (11) and eighth in RBI (39). Tye Wood ranks secdond in OBP behind Walker at .489 with the second-most stolen bases (15).

UNM now ranks No. 5 in all of D-I college baseball in batting average (.325), No. 9 in team on-base percentage (.430), No. 16 in doubles per game (2.37), No. 15 in total hits (522), No. 31 in base on balls (260), No. 28 in runs scored (403), No. 24 in DP per game (0.89), No. 26 in total double plays (41) and No. 27 in slugging (.527). 

All three of this weekend’s games will be broadcast via the MW Network at GoLobos.com/Watch, with live stats available via GoLobos.com/BSBStats. Follow @UNMLoboBaseball on socials for promotional/marketing and gameday updates, behind-the-scenes content and more.

FRIDAY: Lobo Hat Giveaway

SATURDAY: Bark in the Park 

SUNDAY: Senior Day / Mother’s Day

vs. NEVADA (21-23, 13-11 MW)
May 10-12 | Albuquerque, N.M. | Santa Ana Star Field

PROBABLE STARTERS
Game 1 – 5/10, 6 p.m. MT
NEV: RHP Jason Doktorczyk
UNM: RHP Dayne Pengelly 
Game 2 – 5/11, 6 p.m. MT
NEV: TBA
UNM: RHP Brett Russell 
Game 3 – 5/12, 12 p.m. MT
NEV: TBA
UNM: RHP David Lopez

ALL-TIME SERIES
UNM is 29-33 against Nevada all-time and 29-31 since the Wolfpack joined the conference in 2012, with a 14-17 record in games in Albuquerque. Head Coach Tod Brown is 6-6 against the Wolfpack during his tenure at UNM.

MOUNTAIN WEST STANDINGS (as of 5/9)

MOUNTAIN WEST RACE GETTING INTERESTING
None of the MW’s seven teams have been eliminated from postseason play yet, even with just three conference games left to play for San Jose State (14-13) and UNLV (16-11). UNM can only clinch a spot in the MW Tournament this weekend if they win all three games against Nevada – if they don’t, they’ll have to wait until next weekend’s road series against the Spartans to solidify their position.

WEEKEND UPDATE
UNM took care of business in-conference last weekend with a weekend series win over UNLV on the road, capped off by a 10-run eruption in the ninth inning of Sunday’s finale that turned a tight contest into a 14-2 run-rule victory. 

After batting just .235 over the Lobos’ 4-0 week prior, Jake Holland got in on the fun in Vegas, mashing his 14th and 15th homers of the season and reaching 55 RBI on the season with a .500 (7-for-14) week. He finished with a 1.571 OPS over those three games and went 3-for-5 with 3 RBI in both of the Lobos’ wins.

UNM’s team batting average increased and its ERA decreased for a second consecutive week as they extended their streak of games with double-digit hits to 10 and . The Lobos are batting .325 now – their highest team average since March 28 – and enter the week with a 8.24 ERA, their lowest since April 5.

STREAKING AT THE RIGHT TIME
UNM is the only team in the Mountain West that has won seven of their last 10.
In all seven of UNM’s wins out of their last 10, the Lobos have held opponents to single-digit runs – they gave up 10 or more in all three of their losses.
UNM posted a 12.95 ERA over its eight-game skid but has averaged a 6.68 in the 13 games since. In that span, UNM has held opponents to five runs or fewer seven times (53.8% of games). They’d only done it 11 times in the previous 33 games.
They’ve also homered in nine of their last 10 for a total of 20 in that span.

ON DECK
UNM closes out its regular season on the road next weekend with its final weekend series against San Jose State May 16-18.

LOBOS SWEEP MOUNTAIN WEST WEEKLY AWARDS
Following a 4-0 week capped off by their second weekend series sweep of the season, the Lobos swept the Mountain West Weekly Awards for the week of April 22-28. Will Asby was named MW Player of the Week, Brett Russell was named MW Pitcher of the Week and Gene Trujillo was named Freshman of the Week, the league announced Monday.

MW PLAYER OF THE WEEK – WILL ASBY
Asby batted .526 over UNM’s 4-0 week, driving in eight RBI in that span to tie for most on the team with Chase Weissenborn. He hit his third grand slam of the season against Tech — his second homer that game — to finish with 6 RBI and 4 runs in a 4-for-6 outing against the Red Raiders. He followed with a double and a triple against the Aztecs later in the week.
Asby’s third grand slam of the season matched a single-season program record set in 1995.
In total, the senior transfer by way of the Bay Area posted an OPS of 1.545 over the week with 1.000 slugging and .545 on-base percentages — he finished with multiple hits and an RBI in each of UNM’s first two games with the Aztecs as they rolled to clinch the series. Added another base knock in the finale as the Lobos rallied to walk the Aztecs off in the ninth.

MW PITCHER OF THE WEEK – BRETT RUSSELL
Russell shut down the Aztecs’ bats for a career-high seven scoreless innings in UNM’s 19-5 win over San Diego State on Saturday to clinch the weekend series — the Lobos’ first series win over the Aztecs since 2019 and first at home since 2016.
Russell retired his first nine batters faced and only allowed four runners on base over seven shutout frames, never allowing more than one runner aboard in a single inning. He finished with seven strikeouts in that span, walking one while only being tagged for three hits in total — all on just 92 pitches (60 strikes). He only needed to face 24 batters to produce 21 outs, inducing 8 flyouts and five grounders.

MW FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK – GENE TRUJILLO
Trujillo came up with two huge hits in four pinch ABs over the Lobos’ 4-0 week, mashing a three-run homer to lead the Lobos in RBI in their 19-5 series-clinching win over San Diego State on Saturday and adding a double as the Lobos rallied to take the finale on Sunday. Truillo drew a walk in both games.

WALK-OFF GRAND SLAM (!!) FOR THE SWEEP (!!)
UNM capped off its undefeated week and sweep of San Diego State in the most dramatic way humanly possibly on Sunday, completing a rally from down 7-1 with a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth from Devon Dixon that gave the Lobos their first lead of the day at 9-7.
With one on the board and at risk of a double play ball ending the game with three runners aboard, Dixon delivered in only his third plate appearance of the week with one of the biggest hits of his Lobo career to turn back the Aztecs one more time. It was the ninth homer of his UNM career and second grand slam — the other being on the road at Fresno State last season (March 18, 2023).
UNM’s fourth straight win completed the first three-game weekend series sweep of San Diego State since 2013 and first in Albuquerque since 2012. After entering this season winless against the Aztecs in his first two seasons at the helm, UNM Head Coach Tod Brown has beaten them in four out of six meetings this season to take the regular-season series.