Staff Report
The UNM baseball team dropped into fourth place in the Mountain West Conference with a pair of losses to BYU in Provo, Utah, on Saturday.
BYU, 12, UNM, 4
In the first game of the doubleheader, which was played because of a rain out on Friday, the Cougars jumped out to an early 7-0 lead. UNM cut the lead to three with a four-run sixth inning. BYU, however, put the game away in the bottom half of the inning when it scored five runs.
Kris Gross took the loss for the Lobos, allowing seven runs on 12 hits in 4.2 innings of work. Right fielder Joe Salas hit a three-run homer and Josh Mader added a solo shot for UNM. The Lobos were out-hit 16-6 in the contest.
BYU, 5, UNM, 4
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The second game of the doubleheader was a much closer contest but proved to have the same outcome.
The Lobos shot out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning on RBI doubles by Mader and senior first baseman Chris Alexander. The Cougars answered with runs in the second and third to tie the game and went ahead with two more in the sixth to make it 4-2.
UNM came back to even the score with two runs in the sixth. Senior shortstop Dusty Young smacked an RBI double as did Mader.
In the bottom of the seventh, BYU put the game out of reach for the Lobos, scoring the game winner off of reliever Adrian Soto (3-2) who took the loss.
The Lobos 27-17 (10-8 MWC) are back in action when they play host to New Mexico State University at 3 p.m. at Lobo Field on Tuesday.
