The UNM baseball team established an early lead on junior first baseman Chris Alexander's grand slam in the first inning and never looked back, defeating Northwestern University 19-7 at Lobo Field Sunday afternoon.
The Lobos took two of three games from the Wildcats this weekend and improved their record to 6-11.
Northwestern (2-5) initiated the scoring in the first inning on David Gresky's double down the right field line that scored Steve Haake from second base. However, that would be the last lead of the day for the Wildcats.
UNM's Matt Young led off the bottom of the first inning with a rope to left that dropped in for a single and shortstop Dusty Young was hit by a pitch, which gave the Lobos runners on first and second. Second baseman Troy Cairns surprised the infield by laying down a perfect bunt to load the bases. Alexander followed and unloaded the bases with a drive to right field that sailed over the fence.
"They had been throwing me fastballs pretty much all weekend and I was kind of sitting on that," Alexander said. "With two strikes I was kind of in a defensive mode and he left one out over the plate and I was a little late on it but it got up there high enough and went out."
The Wildcats made the game close in the third inning with a two run home run that came off the bat of right fielder Brandon Ackley to make the score 4-3. UNM would answer in the bottom of the third to score two runs on singles from Cairns, Alexander, designated hitter Anthony Lovato and a sacrifice fly from freshman third baseman Josh Mader to make the score 6-4.
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UNM added two runs in the fourth, two in the fifth, three in the sixth, and six in the eighth to put the game away.
Jeremy DeYapp (1-1) allowed five earned runs on 10 hits and struck out one in six solid innings to earn the victory.
DeYapp said the game was a solid team effort and that the early lead helped boost his confidence. He added that the defense came up with key plays when it needed to.
Head coach Rich Alday said he was glad to see the team swinging the bat well and coming up with big hits with runners in scoring position. He now hopes that the team will be able to come up with some more consistency.
UNM beat the Wildcats 13-4 Friday, but lost Saturday 10-8.
The Lobos hit the road Tuesday to take on Texas Tech University for one game and are back home next weekend for a three-game series versus intra-state rival New Mexico State University.
