ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Utah Valley baseball found itself on the wrong end of a 16-2 contest to the New Mexico Lobos in non-conference action on Saturday night at Santa Ana Star Field in Albuquerque.
UNM (11-26) cliches the weekend series with the victory. The Wolverines (9-41) will look to salvage a game from the weekend in the series finale on Sunday.
Deadlocked in a scoreless pitcher's duel early, the Mountain West Lobos managed to put up a crooked number in the fourth on their way to taking an 8-0 lead. Lance Russell started the scoring with a with a three-run home run while Shane Podsednik and Kyler Castillo each drove in a pair of runs later in the frame.
UNM then added five more runs in the sixth and three runs in the eighth to put the game away.
Trailing 13-0 in the top of the eighth,
Mitch Moralez broke up the shutout with a leadoff solo home run down the leftfield line to put the Wolverines on the board. The home run marked Moralez' third of the season. UVU later loaded the bases with two away in the inning and
Trey Newman worked a bases loaded walk to record an RBI and drive in
Pacen Hayes for Utah Valley's second run of the game. With the bases still full of Wolverines, UNM reliever Chezzare Gonzales then managed to strikeout
Kyle Coburn to end the threat.
Gonzales then retired the Wolverines in order in the ninth to end the ballgame.
New Mexico's Justin Armbruester earned the victory after tossing 7.0 shutout innings. Armbruester struck out nine and allowed just three hits on the evening en route to improving to 4-2 on the year. Despite allowing just two hits into the fourth, UVU's
Mason Gray was tagged with the loss to drop to 3-6 on the year.
Moralez and
Alexander Marco led UVU at the plate on the night by each recording two hits apiece. Moralez finished with a 2-for-5 showing with a home run while Marco went 2-for-3. Russell paced the Lobos by going 3-for-4 with four runs batted in and three runs scored.
The Wolverines and Lobos will close the three-game non-conference series on Sunday at noon. Following the contest, UVU will head to the Pacific Northwest for its final WAC series of the season on May 20-22 at Seattle U.
