by Daniel Schrader
Daily Lobo
The UNM baseball team will try to pick up its play this weekend against a struggling Northern Colorado team.
The Lobos, 4-8, are coming off a devastating weekend at the Crown Plaza-Rice Invitational in Houston. The Nebraska Cornhuskers convincingly beat the Lobos and went on to win the tournament.
UNM also picked up an unfortunate 12th-inning loss against Western Carolina.
Its matchup against Rice was called because of weather.
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"We just haven't been able to put it all together," senior outfielder Garrick Haymore said.
Northern Colorado will come to Isotopes Park for Friday's game with a 1-8 record.
Identical to UNM's season-opening series, the Northern Colorado Bears lost their first three games to the Arizona Wildcats in Tucson. They followed that up by getting swept at home by Creighton.
The Bears managed to grasp one 11th-inning win last week against an impressive Kansas team. UNM won the last meeting between the two teams in Albuquerque in 2003.
The Lobos' loss to Western Carolina last weekend was a shocking one. Leading 11-8 in the top of the ninth, UNM found itself going into extra innings as Western Carolina scored three unanswered runs. The Catamounts were victorious by a final score of 14-13.
Daniel Stovall, sophomore first baseman, tied his career high with five hits in the game. He also piled on four runs and four RBIs in Sunday's loss to the Catamounts. Such achievements have Stovall on a nationwide list of only 55 players to win the Brooks Wallace Award, which honors the national college baseball player of the year.
"With these individual honors come team success," Stovall said. "It just shows there's a lot of spotlight on this program."
Garrick Haymore also acquired a career-high achievement by pounding three doubles in Sunday's game against the Catamounts.
"I got some good pitches," Haymore said.
He also had two runs and two RBIs against Western Carolina.
At 2-2, senior pitcher Jason Fernandez struck out 10 batters last weekend in the loss to the Cornhuskers, a UNM high.
"I was just trying to keep us in that game," he said. "My arm felt great. It's just unfortunate that we didn't score any runs."
Fernandez will most likely be starting against the Bears on Friday.
UNM has had the 16th most difficult schedule in the nation to date according to boydsworld.com. The Lobos have faced three teams rated in the top 25 in the nation.
"It's definitely been tough," Haymore said. "The unranked teams that we've played are still good. The teams that are ranked are really good."
The Lobos lead the all-time series against Northern Colorado at 10-9-1.
