Head coach Ray Birmingham had a bad feeling about Sunday’s game as soon as he showed up that morning.
He said he got to the field at 8 a.m. to get some extra practice in, but only a couple of guys showed up.
“It tells you something. I was really worried about today,” Birmingham said.
Fast-forward to a few hours later, the Lobos (29-13) got handed a 10-9 loss by the San Diego State Aztecs (12-25). A team they defeated 10-5 on Friday and 13-7 on Saturday.
Back in March, the same thing happened. UNM took the first two games but missed the sweep by losing the third.
The first seven innings this Sunday were not in favor of the Lobos as they only managed to score three runs, while the Aztecs got nine.
The first inning went scoreless, but in the bottom of the second, the Lobos got on the scoreboard after a run by Jack Zoellner.
The Aztecs took the lead during the top of the third with 4 runs. The Lobos were close to catching up during the bottom of the inning with all bases loaded. The pressure was on Zoellner, who was batting at the time. However, the Lobos were not able to finish this.
UNM once again left the bases loaded during the fourth inning.
The fifth inning also looked promising for New Mexico when Matt Villalobos scored on a single by Erick Migueles. The bases were loaded again and the Lobos were one successful hit away from tying the game.
But it didn’t happen.
The eighth inning was when things began to look a little bit brighter.
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The Lobos got four runs here. Then, during the top of the ninth, they only allowed San Diego to score one run.
The Lobos showed more energy during the last half of the inning, but it wasn’t enough. A hit by Andre Vigil provided the team a little hope by putting the Lobos down 10-9.
“When you start a chain of hitting it just keeps going and going,” Vigil said. “So I thought that it was going to be a good turnaround. But we came up short.”
Vigil said he felt his team did not have as much energy as it did during the previous two matches this weekend.
Birmingham agreed with this.
“I try to chew on them a little bit about having energy,” he said. “SDSU had more than we did for the first part of the game. You could feel it. “
Birmingham gave credit to San Diego State saying it was a good team that just hasn’t been playing very well.
“They hammered our pitching. We gave up 14 hits and we walked two guys. You can’t give up 14 hits,” he said. “We got 25 errors by our pitchers, which is incredibly high.”
But it’s not just pitching that Birmingham wants to see improve for their next game. He says the entire team could do better.
“It’s everything. Base running, hitting, defense, pitching. All of it.”
Isabel Gonzalez is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @cisabelg.
