Immaculate pitching following the first inning has awarded UNM the Rio Grande for the 2016 campaign.
It wasn’t without a fight, and by no means a blowout, but blanketing NMSU in a 3-2 victory on Tuesday night has awarded New Mexico the Rio Grande Rivalry, after winning three of the four meetings.
Things started a tad gloomy for starting pitcher Luis Gonzalez in Las Cruces, New Mexico in the final matchup with the Aggies. The utility lefty, UNM’s typical every day starter in centerfield, allowed a homer to the first and third batter he faced.
After that, the Lobo pitching staff was lights out.
Daniel Johnson and Dan Hetzel both blasted shots over the outfield wall in the bottom of the first inning, making for a curious start.
Gonzalez would later settle down after the difficult first inning of work and collected his second win of the season, improving to 2-1. The sophomore threw 5.2 innings, allowing six hits walking one, and striking out one as well.
While the southpaw will receive the win on the stat sheet, it wasn’t without the help of the remaining four relief pitchers, who didn’t allow a single hit across 3.1 innings of collective work.
Sophomore Carl Stajduhar stole the show offensively for New Mexico with his perfect 4-for-4 day at the plate, which included a pair of doubles in the contest,
While Stajduhar may have been locked in, it was timely hitting by freshman Jared Mang who played both corners of the outfield on Tuesday.
Mang only collected two hits on the day, but both singles occurred with runners in scoring position, accounting for all three of New Mexico’s three RBI’s on the day.
“Luis Gonzalez pitched his tail off and Jared Mang had his first big night as a Lobo with three RBI,” head coach Ray Birmingham said following Tuesday’s game. “That’s a sophomore and a freshman. Andy Pratt was awesome behind the plate.”
Pratt, the local freshman from La Cueva High School has only caught six full games behind the dish in his first season as a Lobo, but had NMSU’s number in the last eight frames of the contest with six different members of UNM’s pitching staff.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The Lobos (31-16) and the Aggies (25-19) have both had a home game along with two neutral site games the four times the two have collided.
Up next for New Mexico is a trip to Las Vegas against UNLV. The Rebels currently reside in fourth place in the conference (19-24, 10-11 MW), while UNM clings to a one game advantage over Fresno State as the season is beginning to wind down.
First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. on Friday 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.
