The University of New Mexico baseball team will host the Air Force Falcons in a three-game series this weekend at Santa Ana Star Field Friday through Sunday.
The Lobos already hold a series sweep over the Falcons this season — in which they took three games from Air Force on the road in early March.
All three of those games in the series saw UNM put up an astronomical amount of runs — they didn’t score less than 16 runs in each game. However, the Lobos put up 24 runs on Air Force in the second game against them, while tallying 28 hits — the most hits for UNM in a game this season.
In the Lobos 24-16 win over the Falcons, junior centerfielder/pitcher Luis Gonzalez paced the team at the plate, going 4-for-5 with three RBIs and three runs, respectively. Sophomore outfielder Jared Mang performed exceptionally, also going 4-for-5 with three runs and one RBI.
As for Air Force, its offensive productions against the Lobos weren't bad either, as they put up five runs in game one, 16 runs in game two and seven runs in game three.
It has been a little over two months since these teams last met. In that time, UNM has maintained its No. 1 spot in the Mountain West, while Air Force comes in at No. 4 in the conference.
UNM has owned Mountain play, positing a 16-3-1 record against its conference opponents. Meanwhile, Air Force is under .500 in its games against conference opponents, with a 10-13 record.
The Lobos have some exceptional wins, too, since the last time they played against Air Force. In that time span, UNM has a game against a top-10 opponent in Texas Tech, a series at home over Missouri State and an away series over its closest conference contender, San Diego State.
As for Air Force, they’ve completed series wins over UNLV — who’s currently last in the conference standings — and a series win over Creighton.
But UNM has played tougher opponents than Air Force, with its RPI coming in at No. 36 in the nation. As for the Falcons, it's RPI ranking is No. 219 of 299 D1 baseball programs nationwide.
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With the Lobos scoring a hefty amount of runs in seemingly each game they play, its team offensive numbers are huge. As a team, UNM ranks twelfth in the nation in batting average (.314) and seventh in hits total (522). Its most impressive stat, however, is that the Lobos rank No. 3 in scoring at 8.6 runs per game.
The Lobos are paced on offense by Mang, who’s batting a team-high .386 at the plate, with two triples, 13 doubles, eight home runs, 52 RBI and 54 runs.
Air Force, however, boasts better numbers offensively than UNM, leading the nation in batting average (.343) and coming in at No. 2 in scoring (8.8). For Air Force, its biggest offensive threat comes in the likes of Bradley Haslam, who’s hitting .404 on the year — which is tenth in the nation.
The Lobos’ bullpen has had a year with a lot of ups and downs. However, its ERA is at 5.53 as a team. Sophomore reliever Christian Tripp has the lowest ERA of all Lobo pitchers at 2.14 in 21 innings this season. But of starting pitchers, junior right hander Tyler Stevens posts a 3.61 ERA, with an overall season record of 6-4. Air Force has a team ERA of 7.01.
No starting pitchers have been announced yet for Friday’s opener.
Game one is set for Friday, May 5 at 6:30 p.m. The game will be broadcasted live on ESPN Radio 101.7, The TEAM.
Matthew Narvaiz is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers baseball and women’s basketball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @matt_narvaiz.
