Lobo baseball tops St. Bonaventure, raises its NCAA-leading batting average even higher
Mar. 3—Catcher Jake Holland hit two home runs and had five RBIs as the host New Mexico baseball team pounded 16 hits and downed St. Bonaventure 14-4 in eight innings Friday.
UNM improved to 7-1, St. Bonaventure dropped to 0-5. It was the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
The Bonnies struck first, for four second-inning runs against UNM right-hander Riley Egloff (3-0), but the Lobos scored five third-inning runs, six in the fifth and were in control. UNM first baseman Reed Spenrath also homered and scored four runs in a 3-for-3 performance.
Holland is a transfer from two-year Chipola College who began hjs collegiate career at Georgia Tech.
The Lobos and St. Bonaventure resume the four-game set at Santa Ana Star Field with a Saturday noon doubleheader.
Deylan Pigford was 3-for-5 at the plate, and had the winning hit in the bottom of the eighth as he nudged the Lobos ahead by double figures to end the game. It was UNM's fifth consecutive victory.
UNM won its fifth consecutive game, and improved to 7-1 on the 2023 season.
Jackson DeJohn's first home run of the season was a two-run shot during the St. Bonaventure rally, and Mark Darakjy and Artin Biageyian followed with RBIs to spot the visitors the early advantage.
Lenny Junior Ashby extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a single in the bottom of the first.
The Bonnies struck in the top of the second inning, when Thomas Grilli punched a one-out double into the left-field corner and DeJohn followed with a home run to left-center. Darakjy delivered an RBI-triple to center, and Biageyian executed a squeeze bunt to perfection to make the score 4-0.
Egloff sput up five straight zeroes after that. He allowed four runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and no walks in his seven innings of work. The two-time reigning Mountain West Pitcher of the Week delivered a first-pitch strike to the first 10 hitters he faced on Friday, and threw 93 total pitches in his outing.
New Mexico, which entered the day ranked No. 9 in the NCAA in scoring at 11.2 runs per game, used 16 hits to bolster its scoring average. The sixth-ranked Lobo defense also improved its fielding percentage to .993, and its NCAA-leading team batting average to .376.
UNM Baseball Box Score — St. Bonaventure — 0303 by Albuquerque Journal on Scribd
