Poor offense blamed in 3rd loss

The baseball team held the No. 16 Oklahoma Sooners to only five runs on Sunday at Isotopes Park, but it didn’t score any itself.
After losing the first two games in the series to the Sooners during the weekend, 7-6 and 10-5, UNM lost its third game 4-0, losing its third straight series to go to 2-8 on the season.

Junior pitcher Austin House struck out six Sooners, but gave up three runs and 11 hits in the first seven innings of the game.
Senior pitcher Gera Sanchez came into the game at the top of the eighth inning and allowed one more run.

“From a pitching standpoint, we competed a little bit,” House said. “We held the run game pretty well. They’re a good hitting team, so what can you do? We’re making improvements, so that’s all that matters.”

House said his job was to keep the other team from scoring so that the offense could take over the game.

“What it comes down to is competing and getting after it on the mound,” he said. “We have to make sure our hitters have a chance to get us back in the game.”

Only three Lobos were able to get hits. Senior third baseman Kyle Stiner and junior shortstop Alex Allbritton both went 2-3 at the plate. Senior designated hitter Trey Porras was 1-2 at bat.

The Sooners jumped on top of the Lobos early. Sooner Evan Mistich hit a home run to left field, batting in center fielder Erik Ross to make the score 2-0 in the first inning.

Oklahoma’s Max White singled in the second inning, bringing in Jack Mayfield. The Sooners added another run in the ninth inning after Ross batted in pitcher Dylan Raper on a sacrifice bunt.

Head coach Ray Birmingham said the team continues to make mistakes early in games.

“We come in on cruise control and then we get punched in the mouth,” Birmingham said. “We have that problem early in innings.”
Even though the Lobos played poorly, Birmingham said he is starting to see some improvement.

“I thought we competed with them on the whole for two innings,” he said. “We didn’t come out with a ‘w’ (win) but I saw some growth. We have a young team and new guys and great competition and we’re not going to lower the bar.”