The University of New Mexico softball team will look to build off of its first win over rival New Mexico State since 2014 as they hit the road to take on the Colorado State Rams in Fort Collins, Colorado in a three-game set scheduled to begin on Friday at 4 p.m.
Due to weather concerns in Fort Collins, including an 80 percent chance of snow, the Friday game is in doubt. The Lobos’ head coach Paula Congleton said she is preparing her team for the possibility of playing a doubleheader on Saturday.
The Rams (19-10 3-3 MW), who had a bye in Mountain West play last week, are coming off a weekend series at Kansas that they took two games to one. CSU also faced off against the University of Northern Colorado Bears in a Tuesday game that it won 9-1 in five innings.
A potent offensive threat, Sarah Muzik leads the Rams offensively, hitting .434/.483/.528 so far this season. The Hawaii transfer isn’t a power bat and has hit zero home runs so far this year. Corina Gamboa provides the power for CSU and leads the team with seven home runs and 24 runs batted in; she is batting .363 on the year, good for fourth on the team. For comparison, Chelsea Johnson leads the Lobos offensively with a .343 average.
“They are a really good hitting team,” Johnson said. “They have one strong pitcher, we just need to be able to attack her. Once we get her out of the game we can take over and keep our foot on the gas.”
Junior Bridgette Hutton, who is 10-5 on the year with a 2.55 ERA, is the pitcher the Lobos will be looking to chase from the game. In her last start, she pitched all 12 innings in a contest with Kansas, allowing 10 hits and six runs, walking eight and striking out three en route to a win.
The Lobos will be looking to build off the positives from their victory over the Aggies on Tuesday, and one of the focuses will be on winning the first inning.
“We say, win the first inning, win the first pitch and score every inning so we put the pressure on and that’s exactly what we did,” Congleton said. “That’s been the message, and I think (the players) are getting that and feeling more comfortable with their swings and what is happening with the game and the speed that we want them to play.”
Against the Aggies, the Lobos failed to score in only one inning, the fifth, and they followed it up with a five run sixth that set up the mercy rule.
In 36 games so far this season, the Lobos are averaging just under four runs per game, compared to just under eight runs a game for their opponents. After the 14-4 loss to Fresno State last Friday, Congleton said that four runs aren’t enough for the Lobos to get the win. Against a Colorado State team that averages six runs per game, that seems as though it could be true once again as the Lobos look to repeat their offensive output from the New Mexico State game.
“We know they are tough,” Congleton said. “We have scouted them and looked at what we can do to make our game the best game that we can and the bottom line is that we need solid defense, whoever is (on) the mound for us to keep us in the game, and then offensively we need to attack like we did at New Mexico State.”
Cameron Goeldner is a sports beat reporter and photographer for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers men’s soccer and softball but also contributes content for baseball, basketball, football and track and field. He can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @goeldfinger.
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