After their first loss of the season on the road against the New Mexico State University Aggies, the University of New Mexico baseball team returned to Santa Ana Star field and got swept in a four-game series against the Tarleton State Texans for a second year in a row.
In game one, the Texans gambled with a double steal to try and bring home a run while Texans left fielder Kendyl Johnson was at the plate. It failed and the Lobos promptly responded with a 5- run inning. The Lobos used that momentum and built an 11-3 lead; however,Tarleton State went on to score 10 unanswered runs. Including two in the ninth inning that proved to be the dagger in the 13-11 game one loss.
“When you have an 11-3 lead in the seventh inning, you have to win that game,” Lobo head coach Tod Brown said.
Game two was a designated seven-inning contest that saw the Lobo bats stifled by Texans starting pitcher Cort Lowry, who threw 5 innings of no-hit ball to complement his 7 strikeouts while his team tacked 7 runs. The Lobos were no-hit through 6 1-3 innings. Although the Lobos did rally for 3-runs in the seventh, it was too little too late, leading to a 7-3 final score.
The Texans outslugged the Lobos in game three, beating UNM 15-10. Game three saw the Lobo pitching staff really struggle to put away the Tarleton hitters. It was the second game of this series that the pitching staff gave up more than 15 hits, something they had not done in any of the previous 13 games.
“It was hard for us to keep up — we had moments where we put good things together, but it was just not enough, ” Lobo infielder Tristan Russell said.
Things did not get better for the Lobos in game four. The Texans got to Lobo starting pitcher Tyler Do early and tagged him for 5 runs in his 3 innings of work. Tarleton had built an 8-run lead by the sixth inning when the Lobo offense got to work. In the late innings, the Lobos rallied against the middle of Tarleton’s bullpen for 7 runs, but with an out in the eighth, Texan closer Tai Phetluangsy came out of the bullpen doors and got a 5-out save. Phetluangsy’s second save of the series closed out a 9-7 Tarleton win to complete the sweep and hand the Lobos a fifth consecutive loss.
All around, the Lobo pitching staff had a rough series. The Texans averaged 11 runs per game on 13.5 hits per game.
“We found out we were tipping our pitches — when they didn’t have our pitches, we did pretty good, but not good enough,” Brown said.
If the Lobos want to get back in the win column next week, they’ll have to do it on the road. Their next game is against San Jose State University on Friday, March 13 — the start of a three-game series.
“We’re ready to put these games behind us — we see it as a fresh start — we want to go out and win some games this weekend,” Russel said.
Elizabeth Bolke is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
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Marley Herndon is a beat reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on X @Dailylobo
