How UNM baseball is gearing up for a revamped Mountain West

The University of New Mexico baseball team would dearly love to make Arizona its home away from home in 2025.

The Lobos know they’ll spend the first week of the season in the Grand Canyon State. If all goes according to plan, they’ll return for the Mountain West tournament in May.

Both visits could be big for UNM, which opens the season next weekend at the 2025 MLB Desert Invitational. The Lobos will take on Austin Peay State, UC Irvine and Seton Hall on consecutive days with the games set to be aired on MLBTV. New Mexico will face Arizona two days later in Tucson before returning home.

As for the possible return trip, this season’s revamped Mountain West tournament will be played at Sloan Park in Mesa — the same venue where UNM will face Austin Peay and UC Irvine next week. It’s part of a dramatic change for MWC tournament, which will include six teams and be played at a neutral site.

It’s welcome news to Lobos coach Tod Brown, whose team broke a lengthy drought by qualifying for the then-four-team Mountain West tournament last season. In the new format, seeds 3, 4, 5 and 6 will square off in single-elimination first-round games with the winners advancing to face seeds 1-2 in a double-elimination, four-team bracket.

“The coaches have been pushing for a neutral site for a few years now,” Brown said. “With the Pac-12 tournament now gone, there was an opportunity for us to play in Mesa and hopefully get some big crowds. We’re excited about it.”

UNM was one of three teams picked to tie for fourth in the eight-team MWC this season. The league includes Washington State, which signed on to join the conference for the next two baseball seasons after the Pac-12 disbanded.

Asked about the preseason poll, which lists Fresno State as the favorite, Brown smiled.

“I think it’s pretty accurate. Fresno State got my vote for No. 1,” he said. “At the same time, we could’ve been picked first or last and I would say it doesn’t matter. There’s just not much separation top to bottom in this league. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The Lobos will have their share of new faces in 2025 and will have to replace their two top power hitters from a year ago, Jake Holland and Reed Spenrath. Still, there’s talent and experience returning, especially in the UNM outfield where starters Khalil Walker, Will Asby and Tye Wood return. Walker and Asby were named this week to the Preseason All-Mountain West Team.

Walker, who led the MWC in batting average (.391) and on-base percentage (.490) last season, believes the Lobos’ outfield can be a collective force in 2025.

“It’s definitely nice to have three all-conference level guys back,” he said. “We might not have the power we had last year with Jake and Reed, but we have guys who can get on base, maybe steal a base and put pressure on the defense. I think we’ll be better hitting with two strikes, too.”

Brown agreed.

“We still have some power,” he said. “We hit six home runs in a scrimmage (Wednesday). But I’d like to see us be less dependent on home runs than last year. We’ve been top eight in the country in batting average the last two years. We need to be better at finding ways to drive guys in.”

As usual, the Lobos figure to go as far as their pitching will take them. UNM has a number of experienced arms returning, including Dayne Pengelly, David Lopez, Daxton Purser, Ryan Castillo, Brian McBroom, Josh Barnhouse and Justin Still. Individual roles have yet to be defined, Brown said, but UNM’s staff has considerably more depth than in recent years.

UNM’s players and coaches feel the program took a positive step in 2024, finishing with a winning record (28-26) and qualifying for its first Mountain West tournament since 2017. The goals have changed in 2025, Wood said.

“Last year we were really happy about making the tournament,” he said, “maybe a little too happy. Now we’ve done that, we’ve got guys who’ve experienced winning and we have higher expectations. We need to be more consistent, play for a high seed, take the next step.”