Put it in the books.
A 7-1 lead for the UNM baseball team heading into the top of the seventh inning looked impenetrable. The Lobos had the best start in program history engraved with what looked like their 23rd win, which would put them ahead of the 1973 club that opened the season 22-3.
Except it wasn't a lock.
BYU performed a little jiggle-and-toggle work, and the Cougars almost pulled out a come-from-behind win, only to come up short in the end. UNM triumphed 7-5, but it wasn't easy.
Lobo pitcher Cole White got his first save of the season, after John Hesketh went seven innings, punching nine strikeouts on 117 balls thrown.
The Cougars pulled within two, getting two runs in the seventh and eighth inning to trim UNM's lead to 7-5. Meanwhile, the Lobos' vaunted offense went stone cold and was served seven straight outs.
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Rafael Neda, Ryan Honeycutt and Mike Brownstein were a combined 9-of-13 and drove in five of the Lobos' seven runs. Honeycutt was 4-of-5 from the plate, increasing his already robust .534 batting average to .551, giving him a stranglehold on first place in the nation in batting average.
Honeycutt said his experience playing at Central Arizona aided his ability to square up and jack the ball.
"I played with the wood bat last year," Honeycutt said. "It's tough. You have to hit everything on the barrel. Now, with aluminum, it's a little bit easier, but the pitching's better. The coaches have really worked me. It's starting to come along."
Brownstein, too, picked up where he left off against Northwestern. The Lobos' lead-off man needed a home run for the cycle, but he didn't get it. Instead, he improved to first in the nation in triples. Before Thursday, he was tied with teammate Brian Cavazos-Galvez with seven. Now he stands alone with eight.
Despite the Lobos scoring 10 or more runs in 18 of 26 games this season, it wasn't UNM's offense that fended off the Cougs. For a change, the Lobos' pitching staff had to muscle its way to victory.
And, in an unusual turn, White was the one toeing the rubber for UNM in the ninth inning.
"That's not really my role," he said.
But it was on Thursday. And it couldn't have come at a better time.
"Eventually, we were going to go down," White said.
White just made sure it wasn't in ashes.
After walking BYU's Kent Walton, White closed the game by striking out the next two batters he faced.
"It's just cold," he said. "Sometimes it's hard to get a grip. When you do get a grip, you kind of get too much of (one)."
With the tying run at the plate, White was in a small jam. So he decided to unpack the heat.
"It's exciting," he said. "It's harder to pitch when you're up by a lot or down by a lot, because you're kind of lackadaisical. When you come in and it's a tight game, you really get going."
Repeatedly, he hit 91 on the radar gun, but Steve Parker wasn't falling for it. So what did he do?
"Cutter," he said.
And it worked like a charm.
Parker buckled, wiffing at the pitch that touched the left outside corner at a mild 79 mph. And White did that despite a tweaked muscle in his back, according to pitching coach Chad Tidwell.
"I seem to do that a lot - walk a guy, then come back and find it," White said. "Effectively wild, I guess."
