Coming into the season, the UNM baseball team had high expectations placed on it, with several polls picking it to finish second in the Mountain West Conference. But an early-season slump has the Lobos concerned about reaching some of their goals.
Inconsistency, lack of experience and mental and physical errors have the Lobos playing bad baseball and has contributed to 4-9 start for the team.
With the experience of a Mountain West Conference championship behind them and some very talented freshman coming in, the Lobos had ideas about winning a lot of games; but it has not worked out that way so far this season.
“We are not pitching very well, we are playing poorly defensively and our offense is inconsistent,” UNM head coach Rich Alday said. “If you had told me before the season, that we would be playing like this at this point of the season I would have said, ‘No way.’”
At the beginning of the season, Alday said he thought his team was capable of winning 40 games. That goal is probably out of reach with the poor start.
The Lobos have not found any viable replacements for key players lost from last year’s club. Shortstop Scott Candelaria, third baseman Aaron Sisk and pitchers Mike Albers and Joe Abell were important components of last year’s club. Candelaria, Sisk and Abell were taken in the Major League Baseball draft, while Albers graduated.
With only six seniors on a roster of 37, young players have had to try to fill these openings with mixed results.
“We have not had people step up and contribute,” Alday said. “We need people to step up and be leaders. We have a lot of freshman, which makes us an inexperienced team, but our returners have also not contributed as much as we need.”
One person who has been stepping up on offense is sophomore outfielder Donny Sevieri. He is currently batting .400 and was named last week’s Mountain West Conference Player of the Week. He and sophomore second baseman Troy Cairns have been the most consistent on offense, but most other players have been hot and cold at the plate.
The team is batting a respectful .301, but has not been able to get key base hits.
“We need to get a better plan at the plate,” Sevieri said. “We should be concentrating on getting base hits and making more contact with the ball. With two strikes, our approach to hitting should be different, but I know that we are trying 100 percent.”
Sevieri said the big reason for UNM’s offensive inconsistency is that it is so early in the season and some players have not found their comfort zone at the plate.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The pitching staff has struggled to keep opposing offenses in check, with a team earned run average of 7.51. With five seniors on the staff, this was expected to be a strength. Early on, however, walks and defensive errors have hurt the team.
“We’ve been walking way too many guys,” senior pitcher Chris Cooper said. “We are not throwing strikes, and we are letting too many people on base. We need to be more consistent and have seven or eight people pitching good, not just one or two. Right now people are just not getting it done.”
The team has given up 79 walks in just 115 innings.
When the pitchers are finding the strike zone and getting potential outs, the defense has not done its part. The Lobos have 21 errors in 13 games and have allowed 21 unearned runs.
“The most disappointing part of our team is the defense,” Alday said. “I thought we would be a lot better. We lost our third and first baseman, and we have had a couple people play those positions who have not stepped up. Our infield defense is very young and its been a problem.”
The Lobos usually have two sophomores and two freshmen playing the infield positions, and the inconsistency has shown, as one minute the Lobos make a great defensive play, then the next, an easy ground ball will be mishandled.
New Mexico State University 11-0 blew out the Lobos on Tuesday at the Albuquerque Sports Stadium, in UNM’s worst defeat of the season. The result came two days after the Lobos played its best game of the season in a win against Kansas State University.
Alday said the team is still upbeat, and Sevieri said he expects the team will begin to pick it up as the season gets closer to conference play.
“We will come around for sure,” Sevieri said. “Our pitchers are getting more comfortable, we will start hitting and making plays on the field. Once we get everything together, we are going to be good.”
