Missed Opportunities Lead to Series Opening Loss for @NCBearsBaseball

Friday, April 21

Las Cruces, N.M.

6:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

15-20, 4-6

New Mexico State

26-13, 9-1

Northern Colorado

New Mexico State

Photo by: Rob Trubia

4/21/2017 9:36:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

UNC baseball's missed opportunities led to its 10-3 loss to New Mexico State

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Missed opportunities led to Northern Colorado (15-20, 4-6 WAC) baseball dropping the series opener against New Mexico State (24-15, 9-1 WAC) Friday night 10-3. The Bears stranded 10 runners on base in the game.

How It Happened
For just the eighth time this season, UNC scored first in a game when Brett Minnick hit a solo shot to center field to lead off the second inning. Northern Colorado had a chance to push more runs across as Nick Tanner and Alex Kiel reached with back-to-back singles after the long ball, but were stranded.

New Mexico State responded right away in the bottom half of the second to take the lead from the Bears. The first two batters reached via walk and a single to put runners on the corners. Mason Fishback evened the game at one with a sacrifice fly. NMSU's next three hitters all reached including a pair of doubles to help push the lead to 5-1 by the time the inning ended.

Northern Colorado had a shot to cut into the New Mexico State lead in the fifth when they loaded the bases with one out. The trio of Tyler Yamaguchi, Matt Burkart and Evan Johnson reached on an error, walk and single to fill up the bases. UNC was unable to capitalize on the situation as NMSU got out of the inning with a pair of strikeouts.

Jacob Howard took over on the mound for UNC in the third and had two strong innings, before the Aggies added to its lead. New Mexico State put a two-spot up in the inning thanks to Tristen Carranza's two-run home run that ended Howard's day. Two more insurance runs were scored by the Aggies in the seventh to make it 9-1 with two innings to go.

As they have done all season long, UNC did not give up without a fight. Jack Pauley hit the team's second solo home run of the day to start a late rally. Minnick doubled, Tanner reached on an error, and Kiel scored a run with a single through the right side to cut the lead to 9-3. The Bears were unable to push any more across, and New Mexico State got a run back in the bottom of the inning to make it 10-3 going into the ninth.

Game Changer
Northern Colorado was threatening to make a comeback in the game during the top of the fifth by loading the bases with one out and the heart of the lineup coming up. New Mexico State pitcher Marcel Renteria worked his way through the jam with a pair of strike outs on Cole Maltese and Jack Pauly to end UNC's threat. The Aggies then added two runs to its lead, making it a 7-1 ball game.

Notable
- Home runs will not be in short supply this weekend as the series features the top two home run hitting teams in the WAC. Coming into Friday night, New Mexico State started one home run ahead of UNC. The Bears evened the count on Friday with two long balls, while the Aggies had one.
- Brett Minnick and Alex Kiel each had multi-hit games for Northern Colorado with two each. Minnick went 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI, with his two hits being a double and home run. Meanwhile, Kiel had a pair of singles, including one scoring a run for the team.
- Northern Colorado had a few chances to get back into the game, were unable to take advantage of the situation. Northern Colorado stranded 10 runners in the game.

Quotable
Head Coach Carl Iwasaki
"One big inning put us in a tough spot early. We faced a tough starter in Renteria, but we had our opportunities to score leaving 10 on base. We have come back tomorrow and be aggressive at the plate and stay out of the big defensive inning."

What's Next?
The Bears and Aggies faceoff in game two of the three-game series tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm. The pitching battle will be Connor Leedholm (1-3, 4.22 ERA) of UNC against Jonathan Groff of NMSU (5-4, 2.91 ERA).