Slow start curtails hype

sports@dailylobo.com
@ThomasRomeroS

Maybe having a target on its back wasn’t the best thing for the UNM baseball team.

The Lobos were ranked No. 21 in Baseball America’s preseason poll and were voted to win the MWC by the conference’s coaches. UNM has stumbled out of the gate with a 2-4 record and dropped several games because of late-game mishaps.

Junior pitcher A.J. Carman said the added pressure has caused some players to overcompensate, which has led to critical errors at the ends of games.

“At the beginning it added a little pressure and I think we got a little big-headed,” he said. “Now that we’re not ranked, I think we’re going to be better off. Now we don’t have a target on our back, we have to work back to get ranked.”

This weekend, UNM will hit the road to Nebraska for a three-game series. The Cornhuskers are 0-7 this year and are coming off a three-game sweep by Texas University. Nebraska has been outscored 46-17 over its first seven games and 45 of the 46 runs allowed have been earned.

Offensively, the Cornhuskers have posted a .243 batting average, a .294 slugging percentage and a .286 on-base percentage. The pitching staff hasn’t helped much with a collective ERA of 7.11.

Carman said UNM won’t take Nebraska lightly, but said this is a good chance for the team to finally get on a winning streak.

“This is definitely a series that we feel that can get us right back on track,” he said. “But it’s going to be tough.”

UNM is coming off back-to-back losses to Iowa and Oklahoma at the Kleberg College Bank Classic. The Lobos lost 6-2 in 10 innings to the Hawkeyes last Saturday. Against the Sooners, the Lobos rallied from a 5-1 first inning deficit to take an 8-5 seventh-inning lead. OU quickly tied the game at 8 in the bottom of the seventh and added two more runs in the eighth to complete the comeback.

The loss was a blow to the Lobos as they had a chance to snap a seven-game losing streak to the Sooners, Carman said.

“That game was a disappointment. We felt we had the game then all of a sudden, it just got away,” he said. “We’re close to being very good pitching-wise. There were mistakes all around, but I feel like a really good team. We’re just not clicking on all cylinders.”