April 16, 2016
SAN JOSE, Calif. - New Mexico grabbed a first-inning lead and never looked back in a 6-2 defeat of San José State on Saturday afternoon at Municipal Stadium.
The Lobos (25-11, 13-4 MW) drew even in the weekend series with the Spartans (11-23, 4-13 MW), who took Friday night's game by an 8-7 tally. San José State's hopes of handing New Mexico its first series defeat in conference action were delayed by at least a day, as the loss forces a rubber match on Sunday.
New Mexico, which did not lead at any point in Friday's opener, wasted no time jumping ahead on Saturday. Jared Zoellner laced a two-out single through the right side to score Jared Holley and Luis Gonzalez and give the Lobos a 2-0 lead.
The Lobos continued to pad their lead with single runs in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. The damage could have been much worse, though, as UNM loaded the bases on several occasions and finished the game with 16 men left on base.
Matt Brown (L, 1-5) and Logan Handzlik both struggled to find the zone and aided New Mexico's already-potent offense by issuing a combined 11 walks in their 6.1 innings of work. Zach Tanner was the most effective Spartan hurler of the day, as the junior right-hander tossed the final 2.2 innings and held the Lobos scoreless while scattering two hits.
Tyler Stevens (W, 5-2) was far from dominant for New Mexico but found ways to keep San José State off the scoreboard for the majority of the afternoon. He worked 7.2 innings and yielded nine hits but was tagged for just two runs, only one of which was earned. The Spartans put their leadoff man aboard in each of the first three frames against him but were only able to scratch out one run in those innings.
Aaron Pleschner's RBI bloop single in the third inning accounted for San José State's only run of the game until Josh Nashed's RBI single in the eighth chased Stevens and cut the lead to 6-2. The Lobos brought in freshman Christian Tripp with a pair of Spartans aboard and he promptly struck out Brendt Citta to end the threat. Tripp stayed in to work the ninth and notched the first save of his career.
Sunday's rubber match gets underway at 1:00 p.m. from Municipal Stadium and features a pitching matchup of Josh Nashed versus Colton Thomson.
New Mexico 6, San Jose State 2 (Apr 16, 2016 at San Jose, Calif.)
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New Mexico.......... 201 111 000 - 6 12 2 (25-11, 13-4 MW)
San Jose State...... 001 000 010 - 2 9 2 (11-23, 4-13 MW)
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Pitchers: New Mexico - STEVENS, Tyler; TRIPP, Christian(8) and GRAHAM, Scottie.
San Jose State - Brown, Matt; HANDZLIK, Logan(5); TANNER, Zach(7) and Stefanki, Joe.
Win-STEVENS, Tyler(5-2) Save-TRIPP, Christian(1) Loss-BROWN, Matt(1-5) T-2:47 A-360
Weather: 77 degrees, sunny
Game notes:
UNM LF Austin Bell was ejected following the 2nd out in T5.