Judging by the sweep last weekend at the hands of the University of Arizona, the UNM baseball team has a lot of work to do before Mountain West Conference play begins.
The three-game series against the Wildcats kicked off a season in which the Lobos will try to recover what it lost. After winning the conference championship in 2000, UNM struggled to defend its title, finishing 26-34, 14-16 in the conference last season.
It doesn't look to be any easier this weekend when the Lobos open their home season Friday at 2 p.m. against Texas Tech University. The Red Raiders come into the series with a 3-0 record.
UNM's quest to improve and reach the upper echelon of the conference will be difficult with a myriad of newcomers. The Lobos will field a relatively young, inexperienced team and only have three seniors in outfielder Donny Sevieri, first baseman Anthony Lovato and catcher Matt Alexander.
Head coach Rich Alday said he believes with the team gaining experience during the season, it will improve and possibly contend for the conference title.
"Our goals are always to have a winning season, to do well in the Mountain West, to win the championship and win the tournament," Alday said. "But when you set goals, you set goals that can be adjusted as you go along. We were a little nervous at Arizona, but once we get the butterflies out, we'll be fine."
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Alday said he does not expect a lot of homeruns from this year's line up.
"We're going to rely more on speed," he said. "We have a chance to have a couple of players hit homeruns but we don't consider them homerun hitters. We'll rely more on our short game, moving base runners, than on hitting homeruns. I think we're going to be a good hitting club. We definitely need to work on our swings and our contact hitting. I think our defense will be fine."
Alday said that the pitchers are inexperienced, but he will be looking to returners James Vemilyea and Jeremy DeYapp to perform solidly while the young pitchers mature.
The Lobos will look to second baseman Troy Cairns and Lovato, both voted second team all-MWC last season, to carry the offensive load. Cairns got off to a sizzling start at Arizona, going five-for-10. He batted .349 and led the conference with 96 hits last season.
The Lobos are picked to finish fifth in the preseason MWC poll, but Alday said it's going to be a wide open race this year.
"The conference is very good this year," Alday said. "BYU has very good pitching and five good hitters. San Diego State has very good returning pitching, although they've lost a couple of hitters, they'll will be right there; same thing with Utah. It's going to be a struggle."
