44 runs in two days? UNM baseball is scorching right now

Cristian Mogen’s breakthrough day may have flown a bit under the radar for the University of New Mexico baseball team.

After all, UNM’s offense continued its weekend barrage in Saturdays’ 19-3 demolition of San Jose State at Santa Ana Star Field. The performance came roughly 14 hours after the Lobos rolled to a 25-5 victory in the opener of a three-game series.

UNM’s sizzling bats racked up 44 runs on 41 hits over two mercy rule-shortened wins over the Spartans. Still, no one enjoyed Saturday’s blowout more than Mogen — the Lobos’ starting pitcher.

Mogen, a redshirt freshman right-hander, picked up the win by tossing five shutout innings. He allowed three hits, no walks and struck out six on 63 pitches, improving his record to 2-1 as UNM (25-17, 12-8 Mountain West) won for the ninth time in its last 11 games.

It was a major step for Mogen, who underwent Tommy John surgery after making just one appearance for the Lobos last season.

“I’ve been battling myself a little bit,” Mogen said, “just trying to believe I’m the same guy I was before the surgery. There wasn’t really much pressure on me today with our guys getting 19 runs and 20 hits — but that one did feel really good.”

Lobos coach Tod Brown was equally pleased with Mogen’s day on the mound.

“Cristian Mogen was outstanding,” Brown said. “It’s rare for a guy to be pitching again 13 months after Tommy John surgery, and it’s unheard of for him to have his full velocity and command back. We had his surgeon in the dugout today as a guest. I’m pretty sure he liked what he saw.”

Mogen faced some pressure early as the Lobos went down in order in each of the first two innings. UNM’s first hit came with one out in the third, a two-run homer to right-center field by Khalil Walker, scoring Brodey Williams, who had walked.

The Lobos led 2-0 through three innings and began to break things open in the fourth. Luke Mansy, Akili Carris and Tye Wood had RBI singles and Will Asby cracked a three-run homer down the left-field line to highlight the seven-run rally. It was Asby’s 10th long ball of the season.

The floodgates were open from that point on. Williams smacked a two-run single and Walker added an RBI double as the Lobos’ lead grew to 12-0 in the fifth. UNM added seven more runs in the sixth with Walker’s two-run double and Gene Trujillo’s three-run pinch homer to center field accounting for most of the damage.

It was the Trujillo’s second pinch homer in the series, but Walker had the biggest day among the Lobos’ torrid hitters, finishing 3-for-3 with two doubles, his fourth home run of the season and four runs batted in.

Saturday’s game started two hours early to avoid high winds that were expected Saturday afternoon. Sunday’s series finale will start at 11 a.m., one hour earlier than originally scheduled.