The No. 24 New Mexico baseball team knew it would have its hands full with Dallas Baptist coming into town. The Lobos’ offense has been outstanding giving the team’s starting pitching plenty of cushion to work with. However, in the opening game of a three game stand against the Patriots (6-3), the offense fell quiet against DBU’s starter, Collin Poche.
After three straight out-of-state tournaments, the New Mexico softball team gets its first taste of home competition this weekend. The Lobos (8-7) host Northern Colorado for its home opener after playing in events in Arizona and California to open the season. Saturday’s doubleheader begins at 1 p.m. with one more game in the series Sunday at 10 a.m.
New Mexico isn’t satisfied with just an entry among the nation’s best 25 teams. Head coach Ray Birmingham said it doesn’t mean much at this point in the season and that New Mexico warrants talks of being a premier team each season.
As criticism continues to mount against Craig Neal and the New Mexico Lobos, especially on this current four-game losing streak, the negativity seems to be taking its toll on player performance. Neal said Thursday afternoon that he’s sensed some of the external noise about the team and references to the coach being “on the hot seat” has affected his players. Several players are active on Twitter, so it’s often difficult to avoid the comments, he said.
New Mexico has ridden a bumpy ride to get to the final game of the season. Seniors Khadijah Shumpert, Bryce Owens, and Alexa Chavez will say goodbye to WisePies Arena amidst the up and down 2016 campaign. While the regular season is winding to a close, the three still have a shot to end their tenures on a high note.
When Erica Beach needed two assistants to fill her softball coaching staff, she turned to two local products. One played for her during Beach’s early days at New Mexico. The other had a stellar prep career at a metro area high school.
The New Mexico men’s tennis team looks to build on the momentum of back-to-back wins when it hosts one match Friday and a doubleheader on Saturday. Last Friday, the Lobos played a pair of matches at the McKinnon Family Tennis Center. New Mexico lost the opening doubles point to DePaul, but that didn’t seem to faze the team at all. The team responded to win all six singles matches and defeat DePaul 6-1.
The New Mexico women’s tennis team looks to notch its first road victory this season when it travels to Texas this weekend to face Houston and Rice. The Lobos (5-4) suffered back-to-back road losses to top-25 competition last weekend in Kansas. The team fell to Wichita State 1-6 followed by a 0-7 loss to Kansas.
With the inaugural season in the books, New Mexico enters the 2016 beach volleyball campaign with a competitive attitude. The first season was more of a trial run, head coach Jeff Nelson said, but this season the Lobos have a better idea what to expect.
New Mexico came out of the UC Davis Tournament one game above .500 as the team prepares for its first home games of the 2016 campaign. The Lobos were able to take game one in the tourney, defeating South Dakota (1-14) by a 3-2 score on Friday night. Starting pitcher Lauren Soles did not receive much backup from her offense, but the Lobos escaped Friday night’s affair with a victory, scoring two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to give Krissy Fortner, who came in for relief, her first win in the circle.
New Mexico was left with a bad taste in its mouth after San Diego State came to WisePies Arena to take down the Lobos by a 51-46 score at home on Feb. 6. The Lobos did more than return the favor to the Aztecs on their senior night.
This time around, when the fans started departing from WisePies Arena with 3:49 left to play, there was no epic comeback to regret missing. Nor did New Mexico’s 83-56 loss on Tuesday night come down to a controversial call from the officials. San Diego State’s sizable lead remained to the final buzzer. By the time the final media timeout came in the second half, the Lobos (16-14, 9-8 MW) found themselves giving up a 17-2 run and down 74-52. The Aztecs capped the blowout victory by scoring 11 of the final 15 points for the final margin.
New Mexico has gotten off to a scorching start in the 2016 campaign and has received national attention because of it. Per the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, the Lobos are now ranked amongst the top 25, coming in at No. 24 to start the week.
New Mexico’s offense again paved the way for New Mexico as the Lobos snagged the series sweep against Wichita State on Sunday afternoon. The offense was able to produce eight runs to support UNM’s starting pitcher James Harrington in his second win of the season as the Lobos garnered an 8-6 victory in the final game. New Mexico (6-1) has facilitated at least six runs in each win this season. Over the weekend, UNM plated at least eight runs in each game during the three-game home opening stretch.
New Mexico’s defensive effort continued to fall off on Saturday. For the third straight game, UNM’s defense in the second half became problematic. Fresno State took advantage of the Lobos’ lack of effort for a 92-82 win at WisePies Arena. UNM has allowed opponents to score an average of 49 points in the second half of the past three games, resulting in a three-game losing streak. After spending most of the Mountain West season near the top of the standings, UNM now sits in fifth place with two games left in the regular season.
It took the Lobos 30 minutes to get any sort of offensive production against Fresno State on Saturday afternoon. The slow start plagued New Mexico, who dropped the contest 51-43 in Fresno, California, despite a fourth quarter offensive surge. The offense was led by forward Khadijah Shumpert, who put together a sound 22 point and nine rebound showing in the loss.
New Mexico’s track and field team failed to defend their conference crown at the Albuquerque Convention Center in the Mountain West Indoor Championships, but still turned in strong performances facilitating individual titles. Despite the men’s run of three straight and the women’s streak of back-to-back conference championships ending, head coach Joe Franklin said he was pleased with the way the team competed. Both squads finished in fourth place overall. The men scored in nearly every event and tallied 101 points for the meet, which Franklin said exceeded expectations. And the women accumulated 65 points over the three-day event.
The New Mexico men’s tennis team picked up two wins Friday in its first home action, playing nearly perfect tennis against DePaul followed by a sweep of Utah. The Lobos played in Albuquerque for the first time this year after a treacherous 13-match road stretch to start the season.
It took a while for New Mexico’s bats to wake up, but when they finally did, runs came pouring in as the Lobos defeated Wichita State 8-4 on Saturday. Saturday afternoon’s game moved at quite a different pace than Friday night’s 17-7 win over the visiting Shockers.
Carson Schneider garnered his second win of the season, but it was UNM’s offensive firepower that stole the show in a 17-7 rout over Wichita State Friday night at Santa Ana Star Field. Schneider (2-0) had plenty of offense to back up his two-run, six inning night. Designated hitter Chris DeVito led the way for UNM’s dominant outing at the plate.
Solutions by The State News
