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New Mexico Eliminates Utah From MWC Baseball Tournament Lobos rally for 12-10 victory. May 25, 2006 LAS VEGAS - After sixth-seeded Utah (28-28) rallied to tie the game in the top of the seventh inning, fourth-seeded New Mexico (30-28) scored five unanswered over the seventh and eighth innings to post a 12-10 victory on Thursday afternoon in the elimination bracket in the 2006 Mountain West Conference Baseball Tournament from Earl E. Wilson Stadium. With the victory, New Mexico advances to play UNLV in the final game on Thursday at 7:30 p.m., while Utah was eliminated from the tournament. New Mexico scored at least one run in seven of eight innings, and held a 6-0 lead after five innings of play. The Lobos started the scoring in the first when Chris Carlson singled and scored on a throwing error for a 1-0 lead. The lead grew to 4-0 in the second, thanks to a sac fly from Jordan Pacheco, and a two-run double from Carlson. The Lobos scored again on an error in the third, and added another run in the fifth inning. Utah made its move in the sixth, as after a walk and single to begin the inning, Tyler Kmetko hit a two-run double, and Bret Baldwin followed with a two-run homer to bring the Utes within 6-4. After Chris Dabbs hit a RBI single in the bottom of the inning to make the score 7-4, the Utes rang up three runs on four hits in the top of the seventh to knot the score at 7-7. MWC Player of the Year Ryan Khoury began the score with a two-run triple, and was plated by Kmetko's RBI single for the Utes' seventh run of the game. The Lobos struck back by loading the bases in the bottom of the inning. Shad McCord came in for relief, and after striking out the first batter, he gave up a RBI single to Ian Hollick and a two-run double to Matt Foote that gave the Lobos a 10-7 lead. New Mexico then added two more in the eighth, thanks to a Ryan Barba solo homer and a Daniel Stovall RBI double for a 12-7 edge.
Utah rallied in the ninth, scoring two runs on four consecutive hits, which was followed by a walk to load the bases with no outs. New Mexico pitcher Damon Miller then induced Joe Mozeleski into a ground double play to record the first two outs, and Scott Malone fouled out to the third baseman to end the game. Stovall led the Lobos at the plate, going 4-for-6, while Pacheco, Carlson, and Dabbs were all 3-for-5, and Barba was 3-for-6 with three runs. Chad Itokazu earned the win for New Mexico to improve to 3-5. For the Utes, Baldwin finished the game 4-for-5 with two runs and two RBI, while Kmetko was 3-for-5 with three RBI and two runs. Khoury and Joe Mozeleski both finished with two hits each. Greg Krause (4-1) was credited with the loss, giving up four runs on four hits over two innings of action.
Game 8 Notes: • After going up 6-0 in the fifth inning, the Lobos gave up four runs to the Utes in the sixth inning and three more runs in the seventh inning to fall behind, 7-6. UNM then scored five runs over the next two innings to retake the lead and claim the victory. • New Mexico scored in eight of nine innings vs. Utah. The Lobos failed to plate a run in their half of the fourth inning. UNM scored three runs in the second and seventh innings, respectively. • Eight of the nine UNM batters had multiple hits today. The Lobos totaled 23 hits as a team. • Utah's first three hitters went a combined 9-for-14 vs. New Mexico. The rest of the order went 5-for-24. Bret Baldwin led Utah, going 4-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored. • Ryan Khoury finished his career ranking in the top five in several categories in the MWC career records, including at bats (second - 852), hits (second - 291), games started (third - 210), runs scored (tied for third - 200) and games played (fifth - 211). |
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