That’s right. On Sunday afternoon, the University of New Mexico baseball team and Central Michigan finished their fourth meeting this season in a 6-6 tie.
After nine whole innings of play, the game was tied. And in the tenth, neither team added another score. In the meantime, the Chippewas had a plane to catch and the game had reached its time limit all culminating to the tie.
The Lobos (4-3-1), however, won the first three matchups. On Thursday in the series opener, UNM won 20-9 behind a big offensive outing from junior Hayden Schilling. On Friday, sophomore Justin Slaten allowed just three hits and no runs starting on the mound for the Lobos in their second win. And on Saturday, junior Christian Tripp struck out the side in the ninth inning to propel UNM to a close 8-7 win.
On Sunday, though, the game was as tight as tight gets. Central Michigan scored in the top of the first on a fly out, with the runner on third getting there courtesy of a triple. It gave them a 1-0 lead early on.
But after sophomore Cody Dye escaped a second inning on the mound in which he left three runners on base, the Lobos’ offense started to get going.
In the bottom of the second inning, freshman Chris Dunn singled with one out. From there, eventually, Dunn reached second on a wild pitch. Shorty after, freshman Connor Mang was walked to put runners on first and second. Then, senior Daniel Herrera singled to score Dunn. But a costly mistake from Central Michigan in the right field, scored Mang, too, to put UNM up 2-1.
The Chippewas, however, would have none of it. In the top of the third, they countered with a two run inning of their own, to take a 3-2 lead.
But in the bottom of the third, senior Danny Collier, who singled to lead off the inning, eventually scored later on a passed ball to tie thing up at three runs apiece.
Both teams pitched scoreless fourth and fifth innings, before the Lobos grabbed another two run inning in the bottom of the sixth.
After freshman Garrett Gouldsmith struck out swinging, a wild pitch eventually got him to first base. Then, freshman Brayden Merritt homered to right field to put UNM up 5-3.
Junior Malachi Emond, who entered in as relief in the seventh, closed that inning out to keep the Lobos at a two run advantage. But in the eighth inning, Central Michigan added two runs, again, to tie the game up at five runs.
It came down to the wire in the ninth. But, quickly, Central Michigan (2-5-1) answered. And with a home run, to take a 6-5 lead.
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But UNM didn’t shy away either. Schilling led off the bottom of the ninth getting pelted by a pitch to get on first. And then, freshman Derek Marshall doubled to right center scoring Schilling in the process. That tied things up and six runs.
Then, extra innings.
But the tenth inning didn’t have the same offensive spark as the others. Instead, both teams pitched three up, three down innings, which ended the game in a tie.
For UNM, Merritt and Schilling both had two hits and a run. Merritt, though, also had two RBI. In total, the Lobos had eight hits as a team compared to the Chippewas’ 11.
As far as pitching goes, no one picked up the win. In six innings on the mound, Dye allowed eight hits and three runs while also striking out five.
The Lobos will host Nevada next Friday, March 2, in a three game weekend series at Santa Ana Star Field.
Matthew Narvaiz is a senior sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @matt_narvaiz.
