The Lobos (24-10, 12-3) will look to continue their great play in the Mountain West when they face SJSU in San Jose. The Lobos currently have a 2.5 game lead in the conference halfway through the conference season, which puts them in a good position for the home stretch. They’ll start the back half of conference play by looking to sweep the season series against SJSU (10-22, 3-12), after winning all three games in Albuquerque last month by scores of 9-6, 3-2 and 11-1. It will be hard to sweep all six games from the Spartans, but the Lobos do have an edge in every aspect of the game. The most important thing for the Lobos in this series is for the pitching staff to continue having the great outings we’ve started to become accustomed to. In the first series meeting with the Spartans, the Lobos had great performances from Tyler Stevens and Colton Thomson, while Carson Schneider had his one rough start of the year. I think that the Lobos should be able to jump ahead of the Spartans early and dominate this series.
Category: Lobo Baseball
Lobo Baseball: Fresno State Series Recap
It was a great weekend at Santa Ana Star Field for the Lobos (23-9, 12-3), who swept Fresno State in the three-game series. The Lobos won Friday night in a fairly standard pitchers’ duel, taking the game 2-1. However, Saturday was one of the craziest games you will ever see, as the Lobos came back in an unlikely fashion to win 14-13 in twelve innings. That set them up to finish the sweep in the Sunday finale, which they did with a 7-4 victory. It was very important sweep for the Lobos, as they were tied with Fresno State entering the weekend. This gives them a three-game lead on the Bulldogs and they won’t have to make a trip to Fresno for a series this season. At the halfway point of the conference, the Lobos are in first with a 12-3 record, leading the 8-4 Air Force Falcons, who have had three games postponed. The Lobos have positioned themselves to where they are in the conversation for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, and with another great week they will find themselves in the top 25 across all college baseball polls. The Lobos and Air Force will only play one series this season, when the two teams finish off the regular season up in Colorado Springs. It could be possible, and preferable, that the Lobos will have the regular season title wrapped up before then.
Lobo Baseball vs. Fresno State Series Preview
The Lobos (20-9, 9-3) won the neutral site game in Roswell against NMSU on Tuesday 3-2. That game featured a dominant performance by Luis Gonzalez and a couple of timely hits, which allowed the Lobos to even the season series against the Aggies. The Lobos now have their eyes set on this weekend, where they will face the Fresno State Bulldogs (21-9, 9-3) in a key series for the Mountain West. Both teams are tied for first place after each playing in four conference series, and this is their only series against each other. If the Lobos win the series or sweep the series, they will have a leg up on the rest of the conference. It will be key for the Lobo starting pitchers to pitch very well this weekend, as all three of the Bulldogs weekend starters have an ERA under 2.35. I can’t wait to see how the Lobos play this weekend, and the Lobo fans should be out in full support.
Lobo Baseball: UNLV Series Recap
The Lobos (19-9, 9-3) had themselves a nice week by going 4-1 during that stretch, including two wins over Sacramento State and winning 2 of 3 against UNLV. They had a chance to go undefeated on the week, but the last game didn’t go the way the Lobos would have liked. After winning the first two games against UNLV by comfortable margins, they had a 5-2 lead going into the eighth inning. However, a four-run inning by UNLV gave the Rebels a 6-5 win and prevented the Lobos from running the table. As nice as it would have been to get the sweep, the important thing for the Lobos is they won the series 2-1 and are now 9-3 in conference play overall. The Lobos will turn their attention to NMSU for their matchup in Roswell tonight. This is the second of four midweek games this year between the two instate rivals, and the second at a neutral site. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Luis Gonzalez getting the midweek start instead of James Harrington, since Harrington got the ball in the last meeting between these two teams.
Lobo Baseball: California Trip Recap and UNLV Preview
This past week featured a good road trip to California for the Lobos (17-8, 7-2), as they went 4-1 on the five-game swing, including 2-1 against SDSU and 2-0 against Sacramento State. The Lobos had great pitching in 3 of the five games, and were just a single bad inning away from going 5-0 on the week. While the Lobos didn’t get the sweep against SDSU, they did get a series win on the road, which always helps to win the conference. The Lobos will return to Albuquerque for a home series against UNLV (9-13, 3-6) in what I expect to be a great weekend for the Lobos.
Lobo Baseball: SDSU Series Preview
The Lobos (13-6, 5-1) continue their road trip after a 14-10 loss to Texas Tech on Tuesday by heading to California for a series at SDSU (4-14, 1-3). In the preseason, these two teams were picked as co-favorites in the conference and so far, it looks like the Lobos are the ones that are living up to the billing. Due to Easter Sunday, the series will take play on Thursday, Friday and Saturday instead of the normal Friday, Saturday, Sunday schedule. It shouldn’t change much for the starting pitchers that will be pitching on 5 days of rest instead of the customary 6 days they’re used to. I like that the Lobos are playing at SDSU while the Aztecs are playing poorly, giving the Lobos a realistic chance at a series win and possibly even a sweep, which could be huge for the overall conference standings. It will be important for the Lobos to jump on SDSU on Thursday, not allowing them to gain confidence, as there is a reason that they were picked as co-favorites in the Mountain West. They can be a dangerous team, so hopefully the Lobos will be able to keep the Aztecs at arm’s length this whole series.
Lobo Baseball: SJSU Series Recap & Texas Tech Preview
The Lobos (13-6, 5-1) finished off a perfect 5-0 week with a three game sweep of SJSU. Lobos won Friday’s game 9-6, Saturday’s game 3-2, and Sunday’s game 11-1. After Friday’s game, where Carson Schneider battled through 6 1/3 innings, the Lobos pitching was fantastic, with two great starts by Tyler Stevens and Colton Thomson. The Lobos offense was its usual self, scoring 23 runs in the three games. As we have seen so far this season, if a starting pitcher just gives the Lobos a decent start, the Lobos will have a good chance to win the game. I like the feel of how the team is playing right now and think that the Dallas Baptist series was just a bad weekend. Since the four game losing streak (3 against DBU and 1 against NMSU), the Lobos have won 7 of their last eight.
Lobo Baseball: SJSU Series Preview
The Lobos (10-6, 2-1) return to home for their first conference home stand of the season where they’ll face the SJSU Spartans (6-10, 2-3). It has been a few weeks since the Lobos have played at home and they would like to get the taste of the last home stand out of their mouths. The Lobos have won four of their last five, including a 2-1 series at Nevada and a midweek sweep of Grand Canyon, so they seem like they’re back to where they were at the start of the season. It will be important for the Lobos to have a good start to the weekend. I think that they should be able to, with Carson Schneider on the mound and the currently-hot lineup facing SJSU’s Friday night starter. If the Lobos are able to get to the Spartans starter early and force the Spartan bullpen to throw a lot of innings, it will only benefit the Lobos. If the Lobos want to be in a good position to win the conference after this early portion of the conference schedule, they need to at least win this series, and hopefully get the sweep.
Lobo Baseball: Nevada Series Recap
The Lobos (8-6, 2-1) started off their conference play with a good weekend in Reno, as they took two of three from the Nevada Wolf Pack, winning Friday’s game 8-3 and Saturday’s game 3-2 before falling in Sunday’s game 7-6. It was encouraging to see some great bounce back performances after the disappointing weekend against Dallas Baptist, especially among the pitching staff. The start by Tyler Stevens was great to see and the bullpen was fantastic in their limited work this weekend. The key for the Lobos to win the conference regular season title is to win series on the road and look for sweeps at home. On top of that, if you can avoid getting swept in a series, it will go a long way towards winning a conference title. One thing that I noticed during the series is that the Wolf Pack pitchers attacked the Lobo hitters, limiting Lobo walks to 4. It will be interesting to see if this is how pitching staffs in the Mountain West will attack the Lobo lineup and if so, how that lineup will handle it.
Lobo Baseball at Nevada Series Preview
The Lobos (6-5, 0-0) look to get back to their winning ways, as they start Mountain West Play tonight with a three-game series at Nevada (4-8, 0-2). After starting the year 6-1, the Lobos have lost all four games in the last week, with 3 losses to Dallas Baptist and a loss to NMSU in El Paso. It will be important for the Lobos to get good pitching, as they have given up 59 runs in the last 4 games. Carson Schneider will be given the ball in his customary Friday night role and will be counted on to get the series off right with a great start. At the same time, the Lobo offense needs to get an early lead to get the team’s confidence back. The Lobos are hitting .326 as a team with an on-base percentage of .440, so the offense hasn’t been the problem, but with the struggles the pitching staff is having right now, there has been added pressure to be even better. The Lobos pitching staff is allowing a .337 batting average against and have an earned run average of 6.80, which clearly needs to be better if the Lobos want to win the Mountain West Regular Season Title. They have the talent to do it, though, so I’m optimistic that they’ll get back on track soon.