Lobos set to visit San Diego State for a crucial Mountain West series
After two days of extended batting and fielding practice against No. 8 Texas Tech, the University of New Mexico baseball team goes back to the grind tonight.
The Lobos (24-17-1 overall, 14-2-1 Mountain West) open a critical three game series against San Diego State (29-13, 12-5) at Tony Gwynn Stadium. First place and the opportunity to host the Mountain West tournament are at stake.
UNM and SDSU stand first and second in the MWC race,
respectively, and have opened a significant gap between themselves and the rest of the pack. Fresno State is in third place with a 9-9 league mark.
Throw in the fact that the MWC’s unbalanced schedule has UNM playing just one series against San Diego State this season, and the next three days loom large.
“We’ve had a pretty good rivalry with San Diego State over the years,” UNM coach Ray Birmingham said, “and here we are again. (The Aztecs) have been playing well, especially in their yard, so we need to rise to the occasion. It’s a long season but these are the kind of games you look forward to.”
On paper, the series stacks up as a battle between New Mexico’s hitting and San Diego State’s pitching. The Lobos lead
the Mountain West with 369 runs scored (SDSU has 274), while the Aztecs have allowed a league-low 161 runs (UNM has surrendered 246).
But the teams actually rank second and third in batting average (Air Force is first), 1-2 in earned-run average and 1-2 in fielding percentage. The Lobos and Aztecs have gone 8-8 in their last 16 meetings.
“We’re expecting a battle, for sure,” UNM third baseman Carl Stajduhar said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if all three games go down to the wire, so we need to make our scoring chances count.”
UNM’s offense has been up and down this season, sometimes sputtering away from Santa Ana Star Field. But the Lobo hitters have been heating up of late. They’ve scored 10 runs or more in each of their last five games, with Stajduhar, Jared Mang and Jack Zoellner leading the way.
Stajduhar, who slumped for several games in early April, now leads the Mountain West with 11 home runs and 52 RBIs. Mang has been red-hot of late and leads UNM with a .388 batting average, while Zoellner is hitting .364 with nine homers and 49 RBIs.
“I feel like we’re finally starting to hit on all cylinders,” Stajduhar said. “If we can keep it going, facing us may not be too fun for pitchers down the road.”
Tyler Adkison (.370, 11 homers, 38 RBIs) paces a balanced San Diego State offense, but the Aztecs’ pitching is what jumps off the MWC stat sheet. Starters Brett Seeburgers and Dominic Purpura are a combined 13-2 and sport respective ERAs of 3.38 and 3.39 to rank 1-2 among conference pitchers. Closer C.J. Saylor leads the league with 11 saves.
The series does not figure to resemble this week’s encounters with Texas Tech, when the teams emptied their bullpens and combined to score 63 runs in splitting the two games.
The slugfests actually helped UNM’s national RPI ranking, which climbed from 47 to 42. San Diego State’s RPI is 103 coming into this weekend, second best among MWC clubs.