Hope springs eternal for the Lobo Baseball team, as they look to make this year the year that Lob-Omaha becomes a reality. They’re coming off a very strong season, in which they went 39-23 (20-10 in conference play), won the conference tournament, and made noise in the Lubbock Regional before falling to Texas Tech and Dallas Baptist. Although they lost some talent from last season, the Lobos have reason to be optimistic about their chances this year, as not only do they still return a lot of talent, they brought some excellent players into the program, including many intriguing arms for the pitching staff. The Lobos will once again have a great offense and could very well have the arms necessary to bring fear to teams in a regional. While we don’t know what the season has in store for the Lobos, we know that we are excited to cover the journey and see the great moments and memories that play out over the next few months.

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August is here, which means three things: school is about to be back in session, another year of Lobo sports is about to start, and we should probably start writing again. There’s a ground to cover that is either about to happen or that occurred while we were taking our semi-unplanned summer vacation, but I figured that I’d first focus on the Lobo that I’ve found myself thinking about the most over the last two months: Cam Bairstow. You see, while I haven’t done much more than alternating between loving and hating the summer weather, Cam’s actually been out doing things.

Here’s a (probably) incomplete list of things that camp has done in just the past couple of months:

• As he did last year, Cam hosted a basketball camp for local kids. He didn’t do it alone, though, as there were a lot of familiar faces involved:

  Cameron Bairstow Camp is live this morning. Great staff. #BRG #CameronBairstow pic.twitter.com/ulHsEGP1J2

  — BRANDON MASON (@coach_bmase) June 22, 2016

  So, not only is he giving back to our community, he’s also proving to be quite adept at bringing generations of Lobo basketball players back together.

• Speaking of local kids, Cam did something that at least slipped under my radar a little bit: he started sponsoring the AAU club formally known as the Danny Granger Hurricanes. I actually found out about this when I happened to be on the same plane as the club a few weeks ago as they were heading to their first tournament under their new, aussified name: the Bairstow Boomers. I think that we’d all like to see more high-level basketball players come out of our state, and Cam being a part of this will only help that cause.
  
• After the basketball camp, he organized the Battle of the Rio Grande, where Lobo and Aggie Alums played each other to demonstrate which one is the superior basketball program in the state. The Lobo Alums won, naturally, 102-97.
• Right before Cam did all of this in Albuquerque, he had a sudden career change when he was traded from the Chicago Bulls to the Detroit Pistons for Spencer Dinwiddie. It looked like he was going to have the opportunity to earn a spot on the roster until the Pistons signed the hilariously large man that is Boban Marjanović, which overcrowded their frontcourt and left Cam as the odd man out. He was released by the team shortly thereafter.
• That didn’t keep Cam down for long though. Just over a week later, and after apparently fielding several offers to play all over the world, he signed with his hometown team, the Brisbane Bullets. For their part, the Bullets seem almost beside themselves that they were able to get him, calling the signing “one of the biggest signings in National Basketball League (NBL) history” and “not only a massive coup for the club, but also the NBL” in their press release. I think that this is awesome for Cam, as not only does he get to play for the team he grew up watching, he’ll actually get to play a lot, which will likely do more for his development as a player, and be more fun, than sitting on the bench most games. As an added bonus, he gets to face his old coach later this month, when the Bullets play an exhibition game against UCLA. Go Bullets.
• Oh, and on top off all of this, he made the Australian Olympic team.
  https://twitter.com/cbairstow41/status/761727663723712512
  Not a bad way to cap off a busy summer.

There’s an underlying context to all of this that makes it somewhat amazing to me that I’ve paid so much attention to Cam this summer. After all, just five years ago, I’m not sure that any of this seemed likely to happen. Cam was that really tall Aussie who only managed to get limited action his first couple of seasons at UNM and was somewhat of an afterthought going into his junior year. We all know what happened after that. By the end of his senior year, he transformed himself into one of the best college basketball players in the country and muscled his way into being drafted by the Chicago Bulls.

Cam’s story is a perfect example of why I love college sports. We get to watch the players grow up, we get to know them, and then, when everything is said and done, we end up being so proud of them and celebrate all their successes. And while it’s great to root for a hometown kid, college sports somehow make it where even a kid from Brisbane, Australia can become a New Mexican.

With the end of the College Baseball season, in which Coastal Carolina became the National Champions, it is as good a time as any to look back at the fun and exciting season that the Lobo baseball team had. While the ending of the season was a disappointment, it showed us how close we are to breaking through to Omaha. Beyond that, Coastal Carolina’s championship shows that college baseball is a much flatter landscape than basketball or (especially) football, where teams from smaller conferences and fewer resources can still compete with the big boys.

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At last, the long, slow grind of the Mountain West baseball regular season is behind us, and the joy and agony of postseason play is about to begin. On Wednesday morning, here in Albuquerque at Santa Ana Star Field, the conference tournament kicks off with the 6/7 play-in game between San Diego State and San Jose State and won’t stop until a champion is crowned over the weekend. It is pretty simple for all but maybe one or two teams (Fresno State and possibly New Mexico): win the tournament or your season is over.

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(Ed. Note: This article was meant to go up before the series started, so we already have a bit of an idea of what the team is planning on doing. Thanks to their 23-2 blowout win against Air Force today, the decision might be a little different, now that they only need two more wins to clinch a share of the regular season title. Hopefully they can keep it rolling tomorrow.)

The Lobos (33-20, 18-9) have a very interesting decision to make in their series against the Air Force Academy (27-23, 11-16) this weekend: should they play for the chance to be co-champions for the regular season, or should they rest some of their players to get ready for the Mountain West Tournament? There are pros and cons to both options, and I am sure that this is something the coaches are thinking about. The Mountain West will be a one-bid league again this season, meaning that the only way to make the NCAA Tournament field, which is absolutely the main goal for the Lobos, is to win the conference tournament. This wouldn’t have been a question if the Lobos hadn’t slipped the last few weeks, having lost their last three weekend series and winning only two of the nine games, as they were in decent shape for an at-large bid before that. But, seeing how things look right now, it might be worth losing a couple of battles to win the war.

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The Lobos (32-18, 17-7) look to get back on track after dropping the last two weekend series. This will be the last home series for the Lobos this season, but not the last games played at Santa Ana Star Field, as it will play host for the Mountain West Conference Tournament in two weeks. The Lobos are still in first place in the Mountain West, but at this point will likely have to win the conference tournament to make the NCAA Tournament. This weekend, the Lobos will host third place Nevada (28-20, 16-8) in a key matchup for seeding for the MW Tournament. If the Lobos are able to sweep the series, they will most likely win the Regular Season Title, but if they don’t, next weekend’s games become even more important.

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The Lobos (31-16, 16-5) continue their seven-game road trip with a key three game series against UNLV Rebels (20-24, 10-11). The Lobos are holding on to a 1.5 game lead in the conference over Fresno State, who the Lobos hold the tiebreaker over. If the Lobos win each of their remaining three series, the Lobos should be in good shape to win the MWC Regular Season Title. In the first series against the Rebels, the Lobos won the first two games, 15-3 and 10-5, before falling in the finale 6-5. It is important for the Lobos to take care of business these next two weeks so they can rest players and get ready for the conference tournament, and then hopefully the NCAA Tournament.

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The Lobos (30-13) head to Phoenix this weekend to play a key non-conference series against Arizona State Sun Devils (23-15). This is a huge series for the Lobos, as they look to lock up an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament, which would take away some of the pressure to win the Mountain West Tournament in Albuquerque in a few weeks. While the Sun Devils aren’t as strong as they normally are, they are still a very good college team and wins against them will look good on your resume for the NCAA Tournament. The Lobos were able to win one out of three against Texas Tech this season, which helps their at-large case, but they do probably need a couple of wins against the Sun Devils to really feel good about their chances to make the tournament. However, the Lobos can’t worry about the NCAA Tournament too much right now, as thye just need to focus on each game and series that is in front of them for the next few weeks. At the end of the day, this series will be a good test for the Lobos, and I think that it could give them great confidence going into the last three conference series.

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The Lobos (27-12, 14-4) are coming off a great win Wednesday against Top-10 Texas Tech and will look to build on that this weekend. They return to Mountain West play with a three game home series against San Diego State (11-23, 4-8), which could give them an opportunity to expand their lead in the conference. In the first series between the two teams, the Lobos won the first two games, 5-3 and 4-2, before falling in the finale, 11-6. The first series was during Easter weekend, which meant that the games were played Thursday through Saturday, so the Lobos didn’t have their normal weekend rotation and Colton Thomson didn’t pitch in the series. The Lobos will have a huge advantage at the plate during this series, as the Aztecs only have one player hitting over .300, so it should be a good weekend for the Lobos and should keep their lead in the conference standings.

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