The Lobos (13-6, 5-1) finished off a perfect 5-0 week with a three game sweep of SJSU. Lobos won Friday’s game 9-6, Saturday’s game 3-2, and Sunday’s game 11-1. After Friday’s game, where Carson Schneider battled through 6 1/3 innings, the Lobos pitching was fantastic, with two great starts by Tyler Stevens and Colton Thomson. The Lobos offense was its usual self, scoring 23 runs in the three games. As we have seen so far this season, if a starting pitcher just gives the Lobos a decent start, the Lobos will have a good chance to win the game. I like the feel of how the team is playing right now and think that the Dallas Baptist series was just a bad weekend. Since the four game losing streak (3 against DBU and 1 against NMSU), the Lobos have won 7 of their last eight.
Author: Zach
Lobo Baseball: SJSU Series Preview
The Lobos (10-6, 2-1) return to home for their first conference home stand of the season where they’ll face the SJSU Spartans (6-10, 2-3). It has been a few weeks since the Lobos have played at home and they would like to get the taste of the last home stand out of their mouths. The Lobos have won four of their last five, including a 2-1 series at Nevada and a midweek sweep of Grand Canyon, so they seem like they’re back to where they were at the start of the season. It will be important for the Lobos to have a good start to the weekend. I think that they should be able to, with Carson Schneider on the mound and the currently-hot lineup facing SJSU’s Friday night starter. If the Lobos are able to get to the Spartans starter early and force the Spartan bullpen to throw a lot of innings, it will only benefit the Lobos. If the Lobos want to be in a good position to win the conference after this early portion of the conference schedule, they need to at least win this series, and hopefully get the sweep.
Lobo Baseball: Nevada Series Recap
The Lobos (8-6, 2-1) started off their conference play with a good weekend in Reno, as they took two of three from the Nevada Wolf Pack, winning Friday’s game 8-3 and Saturday’s game 3-2 before falling in Sunday’s game 7-6. It was encouraging to see some great bounce back performances after the disappointing weekend against Dallas Baptist, especially among the pitching staff. The start by Tyler Stevens was great to see and the bullpen was fantastic in their limited work this weekend. The key for the Lobos to win the conference regular season title is to win series on the road and look for sweeps at home. On top of that, if you can avoid getting swept in a series, it will go a long way towards winning a conference title. One thing that I noticed during the series is that the Wolf Pack pitchers attacked the Lobo hitters, limiting Lobo walks to 4. It will be interesting to see if this is how pitching staffs in the Mountain West will attack the Lobo lineup and if so, how that lineup will handle it.
Lobo Baseball at Nevada Series Preview
The Lobos (6-5, 0-0) look to get back to their winning ways, as they start Mountain West Play tonight with a three-game series at Nevada (4-8, 0-2). After starting the year 6-1, the Lobos have lost all four games in the last week, with 3 losses to Dallas Baptist and a loss to NMSU in El Paso. It will be important for the Lobos to get good pitching, as they have given up 59 runs in the last 4 games. Carson Schneider will be given the ball in his customary Friday night role and will be counted on to get the series off right with a great start. At the same time, the Lobo offense needs to get an early lead to get the team’s confidence back. The Lobos are hitting .326 as a team with an on-base percentage of .440, so the offense hasn’t been the problem, but with the struggles the pitching staff is having right now, there has been added pressure to be even better. The Lobos pitching staff is allowing a .337 batting average against and have an earned run average of 6.80, which clearly needs to be better if the Lobos want to win the Mountain West Regular Season Title. They have the talent to do it, though, so I’m optimistic that they’ll get back on track soon.
Women’s Basketball: MWC Tourney (Semifinal Update)
The Lobos (17-13, 9-9) advanced to Wednesday’s semifinals to face the top-seeded CSU Rams (29-1, 18-0) by controlling the whole game against SJSU and winning 65-51. In the game, the Lobos were able to control the pace of the game and limit SJSU’s good looks from three. Khadijah Shumpert dominated the game, scoring 26 points (11 of 15 shooting), with 5 rebounds, a block, and 2 steals. Most importantly, Shumpert only picked up two fouls in the game, so she was able to play her normal minutes. Bryce Owens was fantastic in the point guard spot, finishing with 7 points (3 of 10 shooting), 12 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal, and only 2 turnovers. The Lobos had a very balanced scoring attack after Shumpert’s 26, with nine Lobos scoring in total leading to the 65 points.
Lobo Baseball: DBU Recap
It was a tough weekend for the Lobos (6-4), as they got swept by Dallas Baptist in a three game series at Santa Ana Star Field. Friday, the Lobos lost a close 5-2 game with a little bit of drama, when the Lobos appeared to tie the game at 3-3 when Dalton Bowers was called out at home, because the umpire said he did not touch home plate while sliding past the plate. It looked like Bowers had touched the plate and if he had scored, there is no way of knowing how the game would have played out. Saturday and Sunday’s games will be ones the Lobos will want to forget and move past. In the game Saturday, the Lobos couldn’t get the DBU hitters out, letting DBU put up video game numbers with 33 runs scored in a 33-8 game. While that was a really bad game, these type of games tend to happen in college baseball and in my opinion, Sunday’s game was the loss that hurt the most. After five innings in the game on Sunday, the Lobos had an 11-2 lead with Colton Thomson cruising, but the last four innings was all DBU, as they outscored the Lobos 10-0 to beat the Lobos 12-11.
Women’s Basketball: MWC Tournament Preview
The Lobos (16-13, 9-9) are on a two-game winning streak as they enter the Mountain West Tournament as the 5 seed. They will take on the 4th seeded SJSU Spartans (13-16, 11-7) at 3:30 MT on Tuesday in the quarterfinals. The two teams have already played twice this season (here’s the preview for the first game, and here’s the preview for the second), with the Lobos winning the game in Albuquerque by 14 and the Spartans winning the game in San José by one. Since the last meeting, SJSU is 3-2 in their last five games, while the Lobos are 4-2 in their last six games. The key to this game will be if the Lobos will be able to control the tempo, they have been able to do this in each of the first two meetings.
Lobo Baseball vs. Dallas Baptist Series Preview
The Lobos (6-1) are on a 5-game win streak and are now ranked 24th in one of the many college baseball polls. If the Lobos are able to sweep Dallas Baptist (5-3), I think that they will start appearing in almost every college baseball poll. These are the sort of series that the team needs to win to have a good shot of making the NCAA Tournament, whether or not they win the conference championship. The Lobos will need great fan support to make it a great home field advantage this weekend.
Lobo Baseball vs. Wichita State Series Recap
The Lobos (6-1) opened their home schedule with a dominant three-game sweep of Wichita State, winning 17-7, 8-4, and 8-6. The Lobo bats were on fire and were able to make Wichita State go to their bullpen early, with only one Wichita State starter to make it through 4 innings. One key thing for the Lobos to be a truly great team this year is for the Lobo starting pitching to continue to pitch well, because the Lobo offense will probably be one of the best in the country.
Women’s Basketball vs. Nevada Preview
A lot has changed since the Lobos (15-13, 7-9) played the Nevada Wolf Pack (5-23, 4-13) back on December 30, which was the conference season opener for both teams. The Lobos won the first meeting 51-47 in a game where the Lobos struggled offensively, and were without the services of Jaisa Nunn (full game) and Alexa Chavez (first half injury). The Lobos need to continue the good offensive play that they showed in their last game, which helped them get a win at SDSU. If the Lobos are able to score at a good clip during this game and the MW Tournament next week, they could surprise a lot of teams.