Ready or not, league season is here for Lobo team in flux

Coach will be “mixing and matching” vs. Nevada

The 2018 Mountain West baseball race officially starts tonight for coach Ray Birmingham’s University of New Mexico Lobos.

Which Lobos will be in Birmingham’s lineup remains to be seen.

UNM (4-3-1) hosts Nevada (3-4) for a three-game series at Santa Ana Star Field this weekend and it’s fair to say both teams still have issues to resolve. The Lobos went 3-0-1 in a four-game series against Central Michigan last weekend but lost starting outfielder Jared Mang to a hand injury and shuffled all four of its infield positions during the series.

“We’re still trying to nail down jobs,” Birmingham said Thursday, “especially on the infield. If we can get someone to play clean defensively and hit a little bit, the job will be theirs. That hasn’t really happened yet at any of our infield positions.”

Birmingham said tonight’s infield alignment could include freshman Derek Marshall at first base, freshman Connor Mang at second, freshman Garrett Gouldsmith at shortstop and junior Hayden Schilling at third. None of the four players started at those respective positions for last week’s series opener against Central Michigan, although Mang and Schilling were in the lineup.

“We’re still mixing and matching and we may be for a while,” Birmingham said, “very much a work in progress.”

Nevada, meanwhile, is also incorporating young players. The Wolf Pack has a veteran outfield unit paced by senior Mike Echavia, but there are numerous new faces on the infield and in the pitching rotation. Ace right-hander Mark Nowaczewski is scheduled to pitch Saturday for Nevada, but tonight’s starter had not been announced as of Thursday.

Sophomore Justin Slaten, freshman Robert Gasser and sophomore Cody Dye will get the starts for New Mexico.

UNM has the better offensive numbers, hitting .274 as a team with 51 runs scored. Nevada is hitting .235 and has scored just 22 runs.

But Wolf Pack pitchers have been solid, posting a 2.58 earned-run average compared to UNM’s 4.75 ERA. Birmingham expects runs to be at a premium.

“Hitters are usually behind the pitchers this time of year,” he said, “and Nevada’s pitching is really good. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have tight, low-scoring games this weekend. Hopefully, some of our veteran hitters will start warming up.”