Lobos sweep aside Spartans
Collier leads the way as New Mexico wins its seventh straight game
The University of New Mexico baseball team continued to take care of business Sunday, defeating San Jose State 8-3 at Santa Ana Star Field to complete a three-game Mountain West Conference sweep.
UNM (11-3, 6-0) won its seventh straight game in businesslike fashion, scoring five runs in the sixth inning and riding stout relief pitching to the finish. Danny Collier had a big day for the Lobos, going 3-for-5 with a home run and throwing out a Spartans runner at the plate from left field.
But Sunday’s contest was not necessarily a thing of beauty. San Jose State (6-8, 2-4) outhit UNM 15-14 and had runners on base in every inning except the first.
With his team going on the road to face college baseball powers Oklahoma State and Cal State Fullerton this week, Lobos coach Ray Birmingham knows business is about to get much more challenging.
“We’ve got to pitch better this week,” Birmingham said. “San Jose State hits .237 as a team and they got a lot of hits this weekend. Our pitchers need to have better command for us to have a shot against top-level teams.”
The good news for Lobo pitchers Sunday was that 14 of the Spartans’ 15 hits were singles, most of them either ground balls
or flairs just over the infield. Justin Beck’s bloop double to right field with two outs in the ninth was SJSU’s only extra base hit.
“I felt like we pitched all right,” UNM starter Luis Gonzalez said. “We kept the ball down and they got a few lucky hits, but we got outs when we needed them.”
Gonzalez worked five-plus innings and took a 2-1 lead to the sixth. He received some help in the second inning when Collier threw out SJSU’s Chris Williams at the plate for the third out. Collier, normally UNM’s designated hitter, was in the outfield because Gonzalez, normally an outfielder, was on the mound.
Collier’s solo home run and an RBI double by Jack Zoellner plated UNM’s first two runs in the bottom of the second.
“It was good to get a little time on the field,” Collier said. “Throwing a guy out and hitting one out are both pretty fun.”
The game’s turning point came in the sixth, when San Jose State collected three straight singles to chase Gonzalez. Chris Williams’ RBI hit tied the score and put runners on first and third with no outs.
Freshman Justin Slaten relieved and managed to preserve the tie. Lobo catcher Robby Campillo threw out Williams trying to steal, and Slaten struck out the next two hitters.
“That was a big pick-me-up for the team,” Gonzalez said.
UNM scored five runs in the bottom of the inning, getting RBI singles from Collier and Jared Mang during the rally. Andre Vigil’s runscoring triple provided insurance in the eighth.
Slaten (2-0) allowed one run in 2⅔ innings for the win, and Christian Tripp worked out of an eighth-inning jam and got the final four outs for his second save.
Zoellner, Mang, Vigil and Andre Gregory had two hits apiece for New Mexico. Beck and Williams had three hits each for San Jose State.