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New Mexico starter Kaela DeBroeck pitched her way out of two early jams against the Mountain West Conference’s top hitting team Sunday, but Nevada’s offense wouldn’t stay quiet for long.
After DeBroeck and the Lobos stranded five Wolf Pack baserunners in the scoreless first two innings, Nevada scored five runs in the fourth, en route to a 10-1, six-inning victory.
The Sunday loss completed a three-game weekend sweep for Nevada against New Mexico. The Lobos lost the first two games of the series, falling to Nevada 9-6 on Friday and 6-4 on Saturday.
Nevada entered the series leading the conference in nearly every offensive category. The Wolf Pack amassed 25 runs on 32 hits in the three games, while UNM totaled 11 runs on 19 hits.
“They’re a great offense,” DeBroeck said. “Give credit to them. You can’t take credit away, but they were not as good as, I think, we made them look some times.”
New Mexico (19-29, 3-9 MWC) had an opportunity to plate a few runs in the third inning but mustered just one. First-baseman Jordan Sjostrand, UNM’s first batter of the inning, scored from third base off a single by second-baseman Kaity Ingram. The Lobos loaded the bases moments later, but did not bring in another runner.
Nevada (28-19, 7-5 MWC) took advantage in the ensuing half-inning when shortstop Megan Sweet’s double down the right field line scored second-baseman Karley Hopkins, left-fielder Chelsea Barilli and right-fielder Megan Fincher. On Nevada’s next at-bat, designated player Erin Jones blasted a two-run homer over the center-field fence, bringing Sweet home and giving Nevada a 5-1 advantage.
All five runs in the fourth came after UNM forced two outs.
“When you only need one more out to get out of an inning, you want to be able to just close that door and not give them extra opportunities,” UNM head coach Erica Beach said. “They capitalized on our mistakes and Nevada did a good job on that. Two-out rallies are hard to come by.”
The Wolf Pack ended the game through the eight-run mercy rule by scoring five more runs in the sixth inning. UNM relief pitcher Lisa Rodrigues struggled after replacing DeBroeck, allowing two Nevada baserunners to score on consecutive bases-loaded walks.
“You saw our patience from early to late in the game, and we were able to put a couple big innings on New Mexico later in all three ballgames,” Nevada head coach Matt Meuchel said.
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DeBroeck (6-9) took the pitching loss for New Mexico. In five innings of work she gave up seven runs, all earned, on nine hits.
She had five strikeouts, four walks and a 3.49 earned-run average.
At the plate, Ingram went 2-for-3. She was UNM’s only batter with multiple base hits.
Nevada starter Megan Dortch pitched all six innings in the winning effort. She gave up three hits and four walks, but had six strikeouts. The only run on her statistic line was unearned.
Hopkins hit in all three of her at-bats and scored two of Nevada’s runs. Jasmine Jenkins went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, and Fincher was 2-for-3 with a run scored. Sweet recorded three RBIs, and Erin Jones added two.
In Friday night’s opener, UNM held a 4-2 lead after two innings before Nevada rallied in a seven-run fifth inning. Committing three errors, the Wolf Pack out-hit the Lobos by a 13-7 margin.
On Saturday, Nevada built a 3-0 lead in the third inning before UNM cut the deficit to 3-2 in the fourth. The Wolf Pack added another three runs in the sixth, but UNM mustered only two more runs through in the bottom half of the sixth.
The Lobos return to action Wednesday for a nonconference home doubleheader against UTEP. First pitch for Game 1 is noon at the Lobo Softball Field with Game 2 to follow.
“We worked really hard this year and we’ve overcome a lot of things, and (this three-game loss) is disappointing,” Ingram said.
“We need to work on firing on all cylinders. One game it seems like our pitching is great, and then our hitting is great. The biggest thing we need to overcome is we need to put it all together at one time.”
