On display Tuesday night at Isotopes Park were all the elements of a professional game: the lights, the wooden bats, the press, the peanut gallery.
However, instead of two major league teams, the UNM baseball team took on the Albuquerque Isotopes.
On paper, the matchup may seem unfair. But this wasn't any other day. This was April Fools Day, and the Lobos looked to play spoil-sports.
Unfortunately for the Lobos, there was no quirky ending to this one.
They lost 3-0.
Despite the loss, first-year coach Ray Birmingham said the exhibition game was a grooming period for his young players.
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"Those are triple-A players out there," he said. "And our guys went out there and competed."
Though the Lobos were held scoreless, Cody Wilson and Brian Cavazos-Galvez each managed to get a hit off the Isotopes' stingy pitchers.
But runs or no runs, the spotlight shined brightly on another Lobo - pitcher Quentin Andes.
Andes, who transferred from Arizona State, has spent the last two years of his baseball career rehabilitating his arm.
After injuring his labrum at ASU in 2004, Quentin underwent an extensive procedure to repair the problem.
But after only three game appearances with ASU, Andes decided it was time to part ways with one of the desert's premier baseball programs.
A hometown kid, Andes escaped the Arizona heat and came back to Albuquerque.
A change of scenery, a change of luck, perhaps - or so Andes thought.
After setting career highs at UNM with eight innings pitched and five strikeouts against Arizona in April 2006, he suffered a setback, re-injuring his labrum.
"It was terrible," Andes said. "I threw the whole season hurt. But I just tried to battle through it."
Although Andes was able to pitch, in part, for the rest of the season, he made what he thought was his last appearance in the Mountain West Conference Tournament.
With a torn labrum, Andes courageously took the mound to pitch against TCU.
"I wanted to help out the team," he said. "But it kind of went downhill toward the end of the season. It was definitely humbling to know in the back of your head, 'Hey, my baseball career is over.'"
That was until he got a call from the bullpen Tuesday.
"I was really surprised," he said. "But I was just happy to get out there. And I am really thankful that our coaches gave me one last opportunity to get out there and throw."
Andes, whose arm is still not healthy enough, will not pitch again this season.
But considering the circumstances, Birmingham said he saw the exhibition as an opportunity to give the senior one last hoorah as a Lobo.
"This was his game," he said. "Quentin's a kid with heart, and he's been a great leader. I told him, 'You're not going to pitch for us this year, but we're going to keep you on scholarship.'"
Birmingham said ASU - which opted not to renew Andes' scholarship - might be regretting that decision now.
"Andes has a future with the University of New Mexico with a degree in psychology," he said. "I have no doubts he will do something with that."
