UNM baseball head coach Ray Birmingham has been well-endowed as a firm believer in helping out the state of New Mexico. The Land of Enchantment has honored the Hobbs native by electing Birmingham to the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday. He will be formally introduced as one of eight members inducted during a banquet on April 3, 2016.
New Mexico has teamed up with a new partner and with it a new name for the university’s baseball field. Earlier today, UNM reached a ten-year agreement with Tamaya Enterprises to rename the Lobos’ home stadium Santa Ana Star Field.
The UNM Board of Regents on Friday approved the next phase of renovations at Lobo Field: a clubhouse for the baseball team. By a unanimous decision the regents voted for the design, construction and lease for the R.D. and Joan Dale Hubbard Baseball Clubhouse. According to a memo provided to the regents, the 5,764-square-foot clubhouse will feature a locker room, players’ lounge, training and hydrotherapy rooms, restroom facilities and showers, coaches’ offices and stairs leading to a second-floor deck.
ollowing the MLB draft, New Mexico will head into the offseason looking to fill some major holes in their lineup and on their coaching staff. UNM’s junior starting pitcher Toller Boardman and junior infielder Sam Haggerty will test their luck in the professional baseball realm, forgoing each of their senior seasons as Lobos. Boardman was selected in the 22nd round (670th overall) by the Detroit Tigers, while Haggerty was selected by the Cleveland Indians as a 24th rounder (724th overall). Head coach Ray Birmingham was unavailable for comment, but he said in a statement that the program he runs at UNM sets out to get student-athletes into the major leagues.
A string of injuries derailed New Mexico’s chances of winning another Mountain West baseball championship. Over the course of the season, the Lobos saw six of their nine starting players miss time due to injuries. The pitching staff wasn’t immune to the injury bug either, as UNM lost two starters — sophomore Conner Rusch and senior Colton Thomson — during the year. The Lobos were able to endure the losses, but finished in fourth place in the Mountain West at the end of the regular season. UNM’s finish is its lowest since the 2011 season, when it placed sixth.
New Mexico’s streak of Mountain West championships came to an end Sunday. The Lobos had won either the MW regular season or tournament title the past four seasons, but that run ended with a 6-4 loss to San Diego State in the title game of the MW tournament in Reno, Nevada. UNM, which finished fourth in the regular season, lost a chance to win the MW tournament title when the Lobos were blown out by the second-seeded Aztecs 11-1. SDSU has now won the last three MW tourney championships.
Garnering close wins is something New Mexico has attributed to being a young ball club. UNM is just 7-13 in games decided by two runs or less. Head coach Ray Birmingham said losing in close contests is not something that can be credited to a single problem.
Youth and inexperience have New Mexico’s baseball team focusing internally rather than on competitors. Head coach Ray Birmingham said his team has been improving and must continue to grow from within rather than worry about the upcoming series tonight against the UNLV Rebels. “We’re trying to play the game right. If we can get everyone to play the game right, then we should take off,” he said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the teams that we’re facing, it has to do with us.”
New Mexico utilized the fierce winds Tuesday night to blow past Grand Canyon University 7-3 at Lobo Field. Not normally known for its power in the lineup, the Lobos connected on two pitches early in the contest to put pressure on GCU. New Mexico never looked back after jumping to a 7-0 lead against the Antelopes.
Tyler Stevens made history in just his sixth career start. New Mexico’s freshman starting pitcher tossed a one-hit complete game shutout in a 5-0 win over Air Force on Sunday at Lobo Field. It was the first one-hit game thrown by the Lobos since 1976 when Tom Bepko and Craig Steiner combined to give up one hit against Colorado Mines in seven innings. The last individual pitcher to throw a one-hitter was Ron Simms, who did it against New Mexico State in 1973. “Nothing really much to say except I just attacked the zone and I had great defense,” Stevens said. “When you have hits at key times, you just have to throw strikes and pound the zone and let your defense work.”
New Mexico’s youth shined against the No. 19 team in the country during a 6-5 victory over the Texas Tech Red Raiders Tuesday afternoon at Lobo Field. Two freshman utility players led the Lobos through an unscathed ending despite UNM’s rocky start. Hayden Schilling and Lewis Gonzalez helped shut down Texas Tech’s offense in the final three innings of play, pitching scoreless relief efforts.
Jake Cole had it going on at Lobo Field on Sunday. The junior reliever pitched 3 1/3 innings, giving up zero hits and striking out three batters in a 5-1 New Mexico victory over Fresno State. Cole also earned his first victory of the season. “I don’t really think about it when I’m throwing,” he said. “I just try to get the job done and keep us in place to win.”
One costly error and a lack of clutch hitting stopped New Mexico’s rally short in an 8-7 loss to No. 24 Houston on Sunday. UNM (11-10) has now lost four straight games by one run and have lost six straight overall. The Cougars won the first two games of the series by the same score of 6-5. “It’s a shame, but I just have to keep them confident and keep them fighting,” head coach Ray Birmingham said. “They’re a good baseball team; they just played a good baseball team. We could’ve won all three, and we lost all three.”
The New Mexico baseball team isn’t usually considered an underdog in the Mountain West, but the underdog role is what UNM will play this weekend when it hosts a San Diego State team that heads into Lobo Field on a seven-game winning streak. Part of the reason SDSU is favored in the three-game series is because of its experience in the field. The Aztecs have eight hitters with two years of Division I experience or more. In comparison, UNM has just two batters — junior second baseman Sam Haggerty and junior shortstop Jared Holley — with two years of Division I skill. “Just by experience alone we’re the underdogs,” head coach Ray Birmingham said. “I consider us underdogs these next two weekends. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to win them.”
The New Mexico baseball team fell into an early 3-0 hole, but climbed back up to win 9-3 over Utah Valley at Lobo Field on Sunday. Senior starting pitcher Colton Thomson earned his first win of the season after giving up three unearned runs on three hits in six innings. He struck out eight batters and walked three. “I thought I was a little wild today. I picked it up later in the innings,” Thomson said. “I didn’t get ahead of batters; it was an average outing. It’s something to build off and keep working for.”
So far, preseason expectations about the New Mexico baseball team’s bullpen have been proven, and the relief pitchers a key reason why the Lobos jumped out to a 5-2 start. Through seven games this season, the Lobo relievers have only given up nine earned runs in 29 1/3 innings for an ERA of 2.79.
It wasn’t the prettiest baseball at Lobo Field on Sunday. In part due to blustery conditions, New Mexico and Air Force combined to make nine errors — six of which belonged to the Falcons — in the Lobos’ 15-5 victory. Air Force committed five errors in the first three innings to help UNM build a 9-3 lead. The Lobos stayed disciplined at the plate, drawing six walks over that same time frame. As a team, the Falcons combined for 12 walks.
Lobo Field will be the site for the New Mexico baseball team’s first road series of the season. No, that’s not a typo. Because of inclement weather in Colorado Springs, Air Force was unable to host UNM and will instead come to Albuquerque for a three-game Mountain West series that begins today. However, the Falcons will still be designated as the home team this weekend.
Ray Birmingham isn’t afraid of constructing difficult schedules. In fact, the head coach of New Mexico’s baseball team often boasts about how difficult a slate the Lobos play. Another tough schedule is on tap for UNM this season, beginning with the Surprise Tournament in Surprise, Arizona this weekend. The Lobos will face Michigan State today, Northwestern on Saturday and Oregon State on Sunday and Monday. “Oregon State is the premier program in the country; they were number one in the country all year long last year,” Birmingham said. “That’s who we seek to play. We don’t have any protectionist scheduling here.”
The New Mexico baseball team has never been shy about its expectations. The Lobos announced at their media day Friday that, once again, it’s the College World Series or bust. UNM fell short of the goal last season when it wasn’t awarded an at-large berth into the NCAA tournament after losing in the Mountain West. But before UNM can march to Omaha, Nebraska, the host city for the College World Series, it will have to get through the Mountain West. The Lobos have won either the conference’s regular season title, the tournament championship or both in the past five seasons.
Solutions by The State News
