Lobos rip Chippewas with 20-run outburst

Lights go out with an out remaining

You might call the University of New Mexico baseball team’s home opener a lights-out performance.

With one out left to record and a pitch on its way to the plate, the stadium lights at Santa Ana Star Field suddenly went out during the Lobos’ marathon battle with Central Michigan.

Bundled up fans and players waited 16 minutes before the lights came back on. UNM pitcher Drew Gillespie wasted no time getting back on the mound and striking out the final Chippewas batter to conclude a bizarre 20-9 victory.

The game was a bit strange to start with, taking 3 hours, 59 minutes to complete without counting the light delay. UNM squandered most of an early 11-run lead then steadily rebuilt it, cashing in on 19 hits and 12 walks.

The ending made it that much stranger.

“I’d never seen anything like that happen,” Gillespie said. “I threw my pitch and I heard (teammate) Chris Dunn yell, ‘You’re lights out!’ from the dugout. I wish that pitch had ended it but we all had to wait awhile.”

Lobo coach Ray Birmingham said the lightsout experience came because the stadium lights are on a timer. The field went dark at exactly 10 p.m.

“We had to call maintenance to turn them back on,” Birmingham said, “and having the lights on a timer is a safety concern we need to address. What if that happens when a line drive is hit at somebody’s head? It’s better to have the lights on for too long than not long enough.”

An announced crowd of 545 had already seen a full cold night’s worth of baseball before the lights went out. The Lobos and Chippewas (both 2-3) combined for 29 runs, 29 hits, 20 walks and five errors.

UNM’s hitters did most of the damage, scoring nine runs in the first inning and building a 12-1 lead after two. Hayden Schilling had four hits, Jeff Deimling added three and both drove in four runs for New Mexico, which struggled offensively

during last week’s season-opening tournament in Surprise, Ariz.

“A lot of guys hit the ball well,” Birmingham said, “but we’ve still got some projects out there, especially defensively. We’re not a finished product by any means.”

Danny Collier, Schilling and Deimling had two hits apiece in UNM’s big first inning and it seemed the night would be a cakewalk for the home team. That changed in the fourth inning, when Central Michigan cashed in on three straight walks, an error and four hits to plate seven runs off two UNM pitchers.

The 12-1 lead was suddenly 12-8, the visitors’ dugout was rowdy and the momentum seemed to have entirely changed.

Order was restored when Gillespie (1-0) came on to pitch with one out in the fifth. The right-hander worked the final 4⅔ innings, allowing just one unearned run on one hit with a pair of strikeouts.

UNM’s offense added two runs in the fifth and three in the sixth to effectively end the Chippewas’ comeback.

Connor Mang finished 2-for-4 with four RBIs for the Lobos, while his older brother, Jared Mang, reached base five straight times and scored three runs. Jacob Crum went 3-for-4 and drove in two runs to lead CMU.