Lobos Outslug Aztecs Behind Peterson’s HRs

The performance didn’t enthrall University of New Mexico baseball coach Ray Birmingham, but the result did.

It was a game of firsts Friday night at Isotopes Park. D.J. Peterson had UNM’s first five-hit game of the year, he had the Lobos’ first multihome run game of the year, and New Mexico beat San Diego State for its first Mountain West Conference victory of the year.

The Lobos (6-10) scored the first five runs and the last five runs in an entertaining 11-9 victory in the MWC opener for both teams.

	Today San Diego State at New Mexico, 2 p.m., Isotopes Park

Peterson, a sophomore first baseman, raised his average from .397 to .444.

“I’m still not there yet,” Peterson said. “But that’s why I came here, to hit with (Birmingham). He’s the best hitting coach in the nation.”

By his own admission, Birmingham said he’s been doing so much fundraising and legwork on renovations for Lobo Field, that he perhaps hasn’t been as attentive to UNM’s offensive needs.

But the Lobos banged out 14 hits Friday night. Peterson’s evolving swing produced three singles to go with two home runs. He leads the conference in batting average.

“He was over-rotating (last year),” Birmingham said. “He was swinging too big. And he didn’t use his hands to get on top of the baseball.”

Nine of UNM’s 11 runs Friday were scored with two outs. The exceptions were Mitchell Garver’s towering one-out homer in the third, and Peterson’s lead-off homer in the fifth.

The Lobos, keyed by a two-run single from Peterson, scored four unearned runs in the second to go up 5-0.

Peterson credited the players behind him in the lineup for offering protection – in particular cleanup hitter Josh Melendez, who ranks third in the conference in batting.

“Melendez is tearing it up,” Peterson said.

The Aztecs put together three consecutive three-run innings – third, fourth, fifth – to lead 9-6. UNM starter Sam Wolff exited after the fourth.

Sophomore reliever Josh Walker gave up three runs in his first inning, the fifth (all with two outs), as San Diego State took its first lead. Walker stiffened with three shutout innings.

“The best thing about him,” Birmingham said of Walker, a Rio Rancho High graduate, “is that he’s a New Mexico kid.”

The Lobo offense scored three in the bottom of the fifth to tie it 9-9.

Peterson’s second homer, a line drive to left with two outs in the sixth, made it 10-9. Freshman Ryan Padilla added an RBI single to right moments later.

“It feels so good to have an offense like that,” said Walker (1-2), who earned his first Division I victory, “especially when it’s producing like it did today.”

Gera Sanchez pitched a perfect ninth to record his second save of the season.

NOTES: The Aztecs (9-9) are without head coach Tony Gwynn. He had a cancerous tumor removed from inside his right cheek Feb. 14. Gwynn will return next week, according to Birmingham. Former UNM assistant Mark Martinez, now with the Aztecs, is helping run the team in Gwynn’s absence.

… Junior right-hander Austin House pitches for UNM today against the appropriately named Travis Pitcher of SDSU, as the series continues at 2 p.m.