Lobos let game slip away in late innings

by Brandon Call

Daily Lobo

The UNM baseball team ran out of gas when it counted most.

Leading 8-2 going into the sixth inning, the Lobos found a way to lose to the Texas Tech Red Raiders 10-8 at Isotopes Park on Tuesday.

Head coach Rich Alday said UNM started out strong but failed to maintain the effort.

"We have to finish all nine innings of a baseball game, not just six," he said. "For the first part of the game, we started out the better ball club. We started out making contact at the plate and hitting the ball really well. We were playing aggressive baseball."

Texas Tech's Roger Kieschnick led the assault, going 5-for-5 on the day with four RBIs. He extended his hitting streak to 12 games.

Six Lobo pitchers saw time on the mound, with junior Adam Skelton leading the way, going five innings and giving up seven hits and four runs.

Skelton pitched a good game until the sixth inning, Alday said.

"I thought Adam came in and pitched really well," he said. "He stumbled a little in the sixth, but he is just starting to perform well for us, so we need to make sure he gets up on the mound more for us."

The Red Raiders were first to draw blood, jumping out to a 1-0 lead off a Kieschnick home run.

The Lobos responded in the bottom of the first after junior shortstop Jordan Pacheco's RBI double tied the game.

In the second inning, freshman outfielder Adam Courcha hit his first home run of the season, putting UNM up 2-1. He also came up big in the third inning with a two-RBI double. He finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs in the game.

Courcha said he was pleased with his performance.

"I think I hit pretty well today," he said. "I was seeing the ball real well and just making contact."

UNM added another run in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by senior first baseman Daniel Stovall. The Lobos built an 8-2 run before shutting down offensively the rest of the game.

Stovall said the early lead made the Lobos relax too much later in the game.

"We came out strong and really took control of the game, but I think we let it get to us," he said. "We let it go to our heads, and we let them beat us."

UNM could have prevented the momentum change, Alday said.

"We stopped playing aggressive," he said. "We stopped hitting the ball. We made some key errors, and Texas Tech was able to take advantage of them."

Pacheco said the team lost its drive in the final innings.

"We just didn't have any energy late in the game," he said. "The momentum kind of went toward their dugout, and we kind of lost our giddyup."

Alday said the team, which is now 6-8 on the season, must put the loss behind it.

"It's really important to get back to .500," he said. "We have to make sure we start doing things right, and that will get us back to .500."

Men's baseball vs. St. Louis

Friday, 11:30 a.m.

College Station, Texas