While the UNM baseball team’s season was filled with difficulties, it still found itself one game away from playing for the Mountain West Conference championship.
When the season started with six straight losses to New Mexico State University and the University of Arizona, the conference championship seemed like a fading dream. But UNM finished the season strong, going 6-3 in its final nine games of the season behind strong pitching and defense, then rattled off two straight wins to be the only undefeated team in the tournament. The Lobo saw their luck run out as they lost their last two games to Brigham Young University and San Diego State University.
For UNM head coach Rich Alday, he saw a good future for the program — his entire starting infield is comprised of sophomores, while freshmen and juniors patrol the outfield and anchor a solid pitching staff. Alday said this year’s recruiting class was very good and is deep in pitching.
“We have lots of pitching as far as lots of pitchers who can throw in the upper 80s to low 90s,” Alday said. “We haven’t had many pitchers who can do that.”
UNM was served well by its youth this year. Sophomore first baseman Chris Alexander tied junior designated hitter Anthony Lovato for the team lead in RBIs with 43 and freshman outfielder Joe Salas was second with 40. Sophomore second baseman Troy Cairns’ 57 runs scored led the Lobos, while junior pitcher Jeremy DeYapp was the only starter with an ERA less than five. Junior Jeff Perez added a team-leading seven saves.
Junior outfielder Donny Sevieri, who was named a preseason second team All-America by Collegiate Baseball magazine and was the publication’s choice for Mountain West Conference Player of the Year, should return and will try to rebound from what was considered a down year. After hitting .392 with 10 home runs and 54 RBIs last year, Sevieri fell to earth this season with a .327 batting average with 9 home runs and 39 RBIs.
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Alday pointed to a variety of factors that could have contributed to Sevieri’s subpar season, including the loss of star players from last year’s team such as Aaron Sisk and Scott Candelaria
“One thing that hitters need to understand is to make adjustments,” Alday said. “Maybe pitchers didn’t know what his weaknesses were. Maybe they figured it out after six games. Perhaps it was the pressure needed to carry the club and do things that Sisk and Candelaria did, but you’ve got to make adjustments. He didn’t do that very well. Maybe he pressed a little bit too much.”
The brightest spot for UNM was Cairns, who took first team all-conference honors at second base. Cairns batted .349 and led the conference with 96 hits and 26 doubles. Lovato made the conference’s second team with a .327 batting average and a conference-leading .463 on-base percentage. Lovato was also second in the conference in walks with 34. He was joined on the second team by senior pitcher Chris Cooper. Cooper led the team with six wins, 111 2/3 innings pitched, 82 strikeouts and four complete games. He was second in the conference in innings pitched and fifth with a 5.48 ERA.
In years past, it has been the Lobos’ offense that has determined the team’s success, but that changed this year. The Lobos had its lowest team batting average (.305) since the 1991 team’s .301 average and hit its fewest home runs (34) since 1996, but they still ranked fourth offensively in the conference and were in the top three in runs, on-base percentage, RBI’s, doubles, total bases and walks.
However, UNM made up for it with the best defense in the conference, leading the Mountain West with a .958 fielding percentage — fourth-best in school history — and a 6.42 ERA, the lowest in five years.
Cooper, DeYapp and freshman James Vermilyea were the anchors for the pitching staff. DeYapp was fourth in the conference with a 4.38 ERA to go with his 4-3 record. Vermilyea started strong, going 4-0 with a 4.93 ERA, but in his final three outings, he pitched a total of 7 1/3 innings and gave up 16 runs.
Still, Alday said everything started to come together for UNM toward the end of the season.
“The last five weeks, we played very well heading in the tourney,” Alday said. “We did very well in the first two games of the tournament, partly because of pitching. I felt our pitching was much better throughout the year.”