With a brown sky full of dust and 40 mph winds, all that was missing from Tuesday’s battle of I-25 baseball game between University of New Mexico Lobos and the New Mexico State Aggies was some rolling tumbleweeds to a make it look like the old west. However, the only thing rolling at Presley Askew Field would be UNM in the battle of I-25 on the diamond. The Lobos rolled back to Albuquerque with a win after showing the ferocity in the way they attacked the Aggies pitching staff in their midweek matchup.
First up was Jake Carvajal, who took a little while to get into his groove on the mound, but unfortunately Carvajal’s time took a little too long. The first two batters got on base before UNM’s Jordy Oriach stepped up to the plate and blasted a three run home run to immediately take the lead. Fortunately, this was when Carvajal took control of the inning, where he then got three straight outs.
The Aggies had a quiet first inning, only scoring one run off a walk with all the bases loaded before Carvajal was able to keep the Lobos from scoring again at the top of the second. This was when the Aggies offense was able to wake up, scoring four runs off a double from Mitch Namie and a Bryce Campbell home run. Unfortunately, this would be the start of a long drought throughout the game once Tommy Meluskey grounded out to end the inning while the Lobos narrowed the gap by just one – scoring off a Gene Trujillo base hit.
While the Lobo pitching began to silence the Aggies bats, UNM seized control of the game in the following innings. First came a run from another Oriach base hit. Then, a three run home run from Luke Mansy in the fourth. Then came the sixth, when a pinch hitting Brody Williams smacked a double deep into right field to bring in two more runs. But the Lobos weren’t done yet with the very next batter, Khalil Walker, bringing in two more after sending a ball into left field to take a commanding 12-5 lead, all while the Aggies had not had a hit since the second inning.
Head Coach Jake Angier addressed the pitching issues after the game.
“They did a better job situational hitting than us, I mean, they got 17 hits, but they also struck out 17 times,” Angier said. “It was kind of a weird game to be honest with you. You know they struck out 17 times and walked 5. We struck out 11 and had 9 walks. So the ratio was in our favor, which usually means we’re gonna win.”
To coach Angier, the issue of the game stemmed from issues in the batters box.
“We’re having bad at bats and then we’ll get guys on with two outs and so our chances to cash in runs always seem to come with two outs,” he said. “Then a sac fly doesn’t work anymore. So we have to have better at bats throughout the inning so that when we have guys in scoring position there’s one or zero outs and not always two.”
In sports, all you need is a little bit of hope. Just look at Jose Iglesias and Grimace in the case of the 2024 Mets run to the NLCS. That’s exactly what NMSU gave to fans that remained. Bryce Campbell double injected some energy into the game with a double to get one run and after him, Austin Corbett added onto a stolen home plate and hit a sacrifice fly into center field to get the Aggies eighth run of the game.
After a silent seventh inning, the Lobos slapped the Aggies for three more runs with a Will Asby home run. There was some pushback from NMSU’s Aiden Lombardi, where he got two more runs for the Aggies from a double to center field getting the total to 10 for the game. But it was too little too late and Namie’s groundout to first base ended the game in a loss for the Aggies 10-15.
The Aggies will play a weekend road series against Sam Houston, with the first game on Friday, April 4, at 5:30 p.m. Their record sits at 15-14.
