With baseball season still off in the distance, the University of New Mexico baseball team has released its 2018 season schedule to the general public.
And its schedule, some might say, is one of the hardest in the U.S. At least that’s what head coach Ray Birmingham said.
“The Lobo baseball schedule is one of the hardest — if not the hardest — in the country,” Birmingham said in a UNM press release. “We plan on with this schedule to win conference and to play in regionals.”
The Lobos will open up the season against 2017 College World Series attendee, Oregon State, who also finished last season at No. 1 in the NCAA’s RPI rankings, while also ranking third in the country in D1Baseball.com’s 2017 top 25 rankings. They also finished with a 56-6 record, one of the best in the country.
The Lobos will also play three separate games against New Mexico State. Two of those three will be played at home for the Lobos at Santa Ana Star Field, while the other will be played in Las Cruces.
The defending Mountain West champs will play two 3-game series against Mountain West opponents such as Air Force, San Diego State, Nevada and Fresno State.
In total, the Lobos will play 30 games at home, 22 away and four on neutral sites, in comparison to last season when the Lobos played less at home than they did away. In 2017, they played 24 at home and 30 on the road.
The Albuquerque Journal spoke to Birmingham about how the 2018 season stacks up to last season’s, where Birmingham discussed how tough it was last season, and how hard it is to get good teams to come play in Albuquerque.
“I think being too road-heavy wore us down last year,” Birmingham said in an interview with the Albuquerque Journal. “We tried to balance that out a little better, but it’s challenging, because the top RPI teams don’t want to come here. It’s always a balancing act.”
New Mexico’s first home stand will come against Central Michigan University in a four-game series. As for the season’s start, the Lobos will play in Surprise, Arizona for a tournament where they will open against Oregon State on Feb. 16, play both Cal Poly and Gonzaga and then finish the tournament with a second game against the Beavers.
Mountain West play will for New Mexico will open up on Friday, Mar. 9 against Fresno State.
In terms of how tough of competition the Lobos will face next season against non-conference opponents, five of those teams finished in the top 50 RPI rankings in 2017: Oregon State, Arizona, Texas Tech, St. John’s and Gonzaga.
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Matthew Narvaiz is a senior sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers baseball and men’s and women’s basketball but also contributes content for football. He can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @matt_narvaiz.
