A rock-solid start from Jason Hernandez and some timely home runs by Ryan Barba and Joe Salas were key in Thursday night's 9-3 win over BYU at Isotopes Park.
A taut pitching dual between Hernandez and Cougar starter Patrick Wells was transformed in the fifth when Barba cracked a two-run homer over left-center field to break the game open for the Lobos.
A 2-2 game was now 4-2, and UNM didn't look back.
"I was really just looking for a fastball," Barba said. "I needed it to finally get to a spot where I could hit it."
Barba was 1-5 in the game, which, he said, "wasn't that good, but my one hit out of the five was pretty good."
The score stayed knotted at 4-2 until the seventh, when the Lobos finally put the game out of BYU's reach.
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Chris Dabbs scored on a Cougar error from third to increase the lead before Joe Salas stepped to the plate with two men on and two outs. Salas, the Lobos' usual closer playing designated hitter, closed out the contest - on offense this time - slamming his third home run of the year over the right field wall. That made the score 8-2 and each squad would tack on another run in the eighth to produce the final score.
Head coach Rich Alday said the opportunistic slams were just a matter of taking what the pitchers served up.
"As far as the home runs go, every time they made a mistake we were successful with it," he said. "They just hung balls over the plate for them, and they hit them."
On the defensive side of the ball, Hernandez went the whole nine for his second complete game of the season. The Lobos' starter described pitching the entire game as an honor.
"We have a great closer in Joe Salas," he said. "And letting me go back out there after eight innings saves him for the rest of this series."
Hernandez had some idea that he could pitch a good game against BYU heading in. At .248, the Cougars have the worst overall team average in the Mountain West Conference. They don't have a single player hitting over .300 - UNM, by comparison, has seven.
"My opponent's batting average this season is about .250, and that's what they hit," Hernandez said. "So before the game I thought about how I would do. But once I got in there, it was just about pitching."
The game was the first in a three-game series that will continue Friday night and conclude Saturday. The Lobos MWC record now stands at 4-3. BYU is 3-4.
