March 18, 2016
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - San Jose State gave New Mexico all it could handle in Friday's series opener at Santa Ana Star Field, but the Lobos broke a tie with a three-run eighth inning en route to 9-6 win.
A four-run second inning gave the Spartans (6-11, 2-4 MW) an early cushion that New Mexico (11-6, 3-1 MW) would spend half the game climbing back from. In that second inning, Shane Timmons (1-4, double, run) extended his hit streak to 11 games with a leadoff double off Lobos starter Carson Schneider. Two more hits and an RBI groundout later, San Jose State had an early 4-0 lead.
The Lobos took advantage of eight walks and a hit batter by San Jose State pitching to put up two runs in the third and four in the fifth before pulling away with the eight-inning three spot.
The loss wasted a phenomenal performance out of the bullpen by freshman Zach Wallace, who entered with no outs in the bottom of the fifth after UNM had already scored four in the inning and shut the Lobos down. The left-hander from Fremont, Calif., worked 3.2 innings and faced just two over the minimum (one hit, one walk). Despite being the main reason the Spartans were able to hang around late in the game, Wallace was saddled with the loss when his only walk came around to score as the first of the Lobos' three eighth-inning runs.
Seven of the nine Spartan starters collected a hit, and the team finished with nine total. Dillan Smith (2-4, double, two RBIs) and David Campbell (2-5, run) had multi-hit nights for San Jose State.
Game two of the series gets underway from Santa Ana Star Field on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. MT/1:00 p.m. PT.