New Mexico head coach Ray Birmingham had to call for time in the first inning to calm the nerves of his young club.
After the conference on the hill, though, it was smooth sailing for the Lobos.
UNM advanced to the championship game after Friday night’s 6-4 victory over Air Force. The team remains in the driver’s seat in the winner’s bracket while Air Force and Nevada will duel out who gets to face off against the Lobos.
“It’s a young team... I told them we’ve been here before so act like it.’” Birmingham said. “The crazy thing is that it’s the older guys who are having some trouble.”
In that first inning, shortstop Dalton Bowers made a fielding error on a tough slow-rolling grounder with two outs to plate Nevada’s first run. Then a wild pitch by starter Tyler Stevens kept the Air Force rally alive, scoring another run. A single to left fielder Austin Bell was botched to score the third and final run of a rugged start to the game for New Mexico.
That’s when Birmingham took a pause and gathered his team, telling the squad to ease up.
“Nerves always play a role in it, but we’ve got to make the plays,” Stevens said. “I knew as the game went on, they were going to make plays for me behind there and I knew hitting was going to break through eventually, like it always does.”
Stevens was right. The hitting eventually gave the first team all-Mountain West pitcher enough support to head to the championship. Stevens also found his groove on the night where he was able to shut down the Air Force lineup after giving up four runs – one earned – in the first two innings of play.
Redshirt catcher Andrew Pratt started the Lobo rally off in the bottom of the third inning with a two-run shot that sailed over the left field wall, bringing the Lobos back within reaching distance in a 4-2 ballgame.
New Mexico wasted little time with the heart of the order in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game up. Lobo infielder Carl Stajduhar led the inning off with a double, and first baseman Chris DeVito followed suit with a double of his own out of the cleanup spot.
Outfielder Andre Vigil plated the tying run with a single to left field, scoring DeVito from third.
DeVito’s injured hamstring didn’t affect his laser of a shot over the right field fence.
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“I didn’t think it had the height, but I knew I got it pretty good,” DeVito said. “I didn’t think it had the height, so I started hustling and then I saw it go over and I was like alright, cool.”
Though he didn’t know it at the time, DeVito’s trot around the bases with his tender leg would be the game’s deciding run to give UNM a shot at the Mountain West crown.
The Lobos would score one more run in the bottom of the seventh inning on a strange inning-ending double play which scored Pratt.
Second baseman Michael Eaton hit a deep fly ball to right field that forced Pratt to tag up on third base. However, Luis Gonzalez was already racing towards second before the ball was hit. Gonzalez and Air Force shortstop Tyler Zabojnik collided and Spencer Draws had enough wits about him to throw out Gonzalez from right field.
However, even though it was a force out, Pratt scored before the out occurred, allowing the Lobos to add more cushion to their one run lead.
Birmingham said the inning should have continued, which is why the head coach said he went to talk with each of the umpires who were involved in the play.
The head coach didn’t get his way, but the Lobos 6-4 lead would stand with pitcher Christian Tripp appearing for the 24th time this season, tying starter Carson Schneider for most appearances by a first year player. The tall righty picked up his fourth save of the year.
Just a year ago, UNM found themselves in this exact situation in Reno, Nevada, last year’s MW tournament location. The team needed to win one of two games and the club would be crowned conference champions.
That didn’t happen. This year, DeVito said the team is not going to settle for runner-up.
“We were in the same situation last year and obviously fell a little bit short,” DeVito said. “I’m not going to let that happen again, I guarantee that. We’ll be done tomorrow night.”
Liam Cary-Eaves is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Liam_CE.
