Unlike the last time these two teams faced off, San Diego State Baseball fell victim to the high-powered offensive attack of University of New Mexico, losing to the Mountain West opponent 10-5 on Friday night.
It was the second meeting of the season between the two teams were who picked to win the MW conference in 2016 before the season began.
The Aztecs (11-23, 4-9) were looking to add their second win in a row and second consecutive win over the Lobos (28-12, 15-4), but the MW leaders had other plans.
SDSU struck first, however, scoring three unearned runs in the top of the second.
The inning began with two walks, issued to sophomore center fielder David Hensley and redshirt-senior designated hitter Spencer Thornton.
A bunt by sophomore right fielder Tyler Adkison and two throwing errors by the Lobos’ defense later, and Hensley and Thorton had given the Aztecs a 2-0 lead. A score by Adkison made the game 3-0 in favor of SDSU.
UNM bit back with two runs in the third inning, including one rbi single from Junior catcher Chris Devito, who leads the MW with a .419 batting average and 49 rbis this season, to close the gap to 3-2.
The Lobos followed that up with a five-run fourth inning, experiencing the offensive explosion they had not seen in their previous series against the Aztecs.
It was in that inning that freshman starter Harrison Pyatt (0-4) faced his last batter, after allowing seven runs and seven hits while only striking out two in 3.2 innings.
Pyatt has struggled lately after earning the Friday starting position, beating out veteran starters in juniors Marcus Reyes and Brett Seeburger and redshirt-junior Cody Thompson.
In this start alone, Pyatt saw his era rise from 4.68 to 5.53.
SDSU had a prime opportunity to respond and save Pyatt of a loss when it loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the sixth, but saw a Thornton groundout and an Adkison double play thwart the chance.
The Aztecs scored two additional runs, one on an rbi groundout in the seventh and one on a wild pitch in the ninth, continuing the theme of scoring unearned and garbage runs.
In fact, none of the runs scored by SDSU were on hits, and only two of the runs scored were earned.
The Lobos added three insurance runs in the seventh frame, two of which came on a home run jolted off the bat of sophomore third baseman Carl Stajduhar, making the score 10-4.
Sophomore shortstop Alan Trejo continued his revelatory season, adding to his team-leading 16 multi-hit games with a 3-4 showing, but just as has been the case all season, got little help.
The remainder of the Aztec lineup notched only three hits against the New Mexico pitchers.
They had troubles specifically facing starter junior Carson Schneider, who recorded a MW – leading seventh win. Schneider has a 3.23 era this season.
Lefty Marcus Reyes will inherit the 0-1 series deficit as he faces the dangerous Lobo lineup in game two of the series Saturday afternoon.
