It was a preposterous, record-breaking weekend for the Lobo baseball team, which scored a total of 59 runs in a three-game series at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., this weekend.
UNM recorded two school records and two Mountain West Conference records in its 31-11 rout of the Falcons on Saturday afternoon. The 31 runs are more than any Lobo
team - or MWC team for that matter - has ever scored in a single game. UNM's 29 hits in one game is also a record.
Lobo head coach Rich Alday said he has never seen a higher scoring baseball game.
"That's the best offensive performance for us in the 15 years I've been here," Alday said. "It was enjoyable and not a lot of strain. We played very good defense as well."
UNM beat the Falcons 10-5 in the opener Friday and started out with the same intensity on Saturday afternoon when they went up 7-0 in the first inning.
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Alday said having the early advantage set a positive tone for the rest of the game and made the series enjoyable.
"It was nice for our guys to go out there with a seven-run lead," he said. "All of a sudden we just exploded in the last four or five innings. The guys we put in just continued to hit."
Sophomore Ryan Barba, senior Joe Salas and junior Daniel Stovall each recorded five hits in the second game. Barba scored four runs including a homer, with five RBI and Salas had five scores with three RBI.
Alday said Salas is finally getting the results he's been working for all season.
"One thing about Joe is he's hit the ball extremely hard but he's had nothing to show for it because he hits it at people," Alday said. "He's really an outstanding player. He can really hit and really pitch well. He's starting to get the ball to fall, so that's really nice for all of us."
By the bottom of the fifth, the Lobos had 12 runs and late in the game UNM had a 31-5 advantage.
"We put some pitchers in that hadn't pitched in a while," Alday said. "They did OK. It wasn't a practice, but it gave some of the players who hadn't played in awhile the opportunity to play."
Alday said it was an extremely difficult day to pitch because of unfavorable weather conditions. He said wind speeds reached 20 to 30 miles per hour at Falcon Field.
"It was a challenge because it was really windy and cold, but Cooper (Eddy) pitched well," he said. "We only walked three guys."
Freshman Danny Ray Herrera pitched five innings in Saturday's victory and struck out a season-high nine batters, while giving away 11 hits.
UNM went on to slug eight homers to end the series Sunday, 18-6. Catcher A.J. Spitaleri smashed two solo home runs to go along with four RBI and Salas added two home runs, with three hits and four RBI.
In addition to the 59 runs, the Lobos knocked off 63 hits and 17 homers this weekend.
