It was just that kind of night for the Lobos.
Nothing would or wanted to bounce in the UNM baseball team’s favor, even a late Lobo rally in the eighth inning, which ended when Alex Allbritton hit into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded.
The Lobos never recovered and faltered at the hands of San Francisco, 9-5, on Tuesday at Isotopes Park.
But like an old broken-down record, the pitching kept playing a bad tune.
The Lobos substituted three pitchers Jacob Nelson, Gabe Aguilar and Oscar Almeida in the bottom of the sixth inning that resulted in two hits and one run by the Dons.
This was before, the fourth pitcher of the inning, Jason Oatman, sat down the last two batters of the San Francisco’s line up.
USF posted three straight two-run innings in the fifth, sixth and seventh.
UNM head baseball coach Ray Birmingham said UNM’s pitching hasn’t cut the mustard all season.
“If you watched the other team tonight, the difference was the pitching ability,” Birmingham said. “That team over there — San Francisco — they can pitch. The University of New Mexico has to get that kind of stuff going on and that was the difference in the ball game.”
As bad as it was, things got worse and a little weird for the Lobos.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, home-plate umpire Ryan Morehead called a balk on Oatman that advanced Pete Lavin from first base to second.
UNM catcher Rafael Neda tried executing a trick play but failed. After the pitch, Lavin remained off the bag at second. Neda attempted to throw the ball to third baseman Allbritton, but the ball bounced off Jason Mahood’s bat and ricocheted into the stands.
Both dugouts were confused, and so were the fans, but the bewilderment just led to Lavin advancing to third base without even throwing a pitch.
“I mean, it was just a pick-off to third base,” Neda said. “The hitter was up in the (batter’s) box, and (I had) the whole area behind me to throw the ball. So I threw the ball, and, lucky me, he dropped the bat and the ball hit the bat. When it hit the bat it went all the way to the seats. I could see the throw, and I knew it was going to go right to the base.”
The Lobos offense sputtered, and it could have borrowed a few of those 29 runs they scored on Sunday against Coppin State.
USF’s pitching had UNM in check all night and when the Lobos had runners in scoring position, all they could do was pop into fielder’s choices all night. The Lobos finished the night with seven hits.
Adam Courcha’s two-run double in the bottom of the fifth was UNM’s only sign of life, cutting San Francisco’s lead to 5-3. Other than that, the Lobos never threatened.
“But the beautiful thing is that the fight in the kids isn’t leaving,” Birmingham said. “And it’s despite the fact that they keep getting knocked down by poor pitching on our behalf, and we have got to get that fixed.”
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