{"id":183223,"date":"2026-02-18T17:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T17:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/183223\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T17:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T17:50:17","slug":"lobos-host-northern-colorado-for-four-game-series-this-weekend-new-mexico-lobos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/183223\/","title":{"rendered":"Lobos Host Northern Colorado for Four-Game Series This Weekend – New Mexico Lobos"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALL-TIME SERIES
\u2022 UNM is 32-12 against Northern Colorado in an all-time series that began in 1959, with all but one of those games being played in Albuquerque.\u00a0
\u2022 The Lobos have won 13 of the last 15 meetings, most recently rallying to split a four-game series last season after dropping the first two (15-16, 11-15, 13-4, 12-7). UNM Coach Tod Brown<\/a> is 5-2 against the Bears in his tenure in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

LAST WEEKEND
\u2022 As a team, the Lobos hit .427 (56-for-131) with a .583 on-base percentage and .679 slugging percentage, scoring 68 runs across four games. They racked up 18 doubles and five home runs while drawing 41 walks compared to just 8 walks issued by UNM pitchers.
\u2022 With runners in scoring position, New Mexico was especially dangerous, hitting .500 (35-for-70) over the weekend.
\u2022 Individually, several Lobos put together huge series:
– Lenny Ashby hit a team-high .700 (7-for-10) with a\u00a01.100 slugging percentage to go with five RBI and nine runs scored.
– Gene Trujillo<\/a> batted .563 (9-for-16) with five doubles and a team-high 10 RBI, earning MW Player of the Week honors for his performance.
– Brodey Williams<\/a> went 4-for-6 (.667) with six RBI and a .778 OBP.
– Aidan Kuni<\/a> hit .444 with two doubles, a homer and eight RBI, with a homer and a double in a five-RBI performance in his Lobo debut on Friday.
– Anthony Diaz<\/a> scored a team-high 10 runs while posting a .647 on-base percentage, reaching safely in the bottom of the ninth to walk things off in the series opener.<\/p>\n

TRUJILLO NAMED MW PLAYER OF THE WEEK
\u2022 After leading the Lobos with 10 RBI and five doubles in their opening-weekend sweep of Fordham last weekend, New Mexico\u2019s Gene Trujillo<\/a> has been named Mountain West Player of the Week for the first week of the 2026 season.
\u2022 It\u2019s the second MW weekly award of Trujillo\u2019s career and his first Player of the Week honors. He previously was named MW Freshman of the Week on April 29, 2024.
\u2022 Starting at first base for the whole weekend, Trujillo batted .563 with a team-high 10 RBI as the Lobos swept Fordham (10-9, 18-8, 16-6, 24-5), closing out the series with three consecutive seven-inning run-rule victories. The junior Albuquerque native picked up multiple hits in all four games, finishing with five doubles to go with a .632 on-base percentage and .875 slugging percentage.
\u2022 He also scored five runs, including three in Sunday\u2019s weekend finale as UNM secured its first nonconference series sweep since 2023.<\/p>\n

2026 OUTLOOK
\u2022 After another season in which the Lobos improved their winning percentage and made the Mountain West Tournament with one of their best offensive seasons in recent memory, New Mexico looks to be a threat to win the Mountain West in its final season with Fresno State, San Diego State and Washington State in the conference.
\u2022 Heading into Head Coach Tod Brown<\/a>\u2019s fifth year at the helm, the Lobos return three players that batted above .300 last season in starting roles and a total of nine upperclassmen pitching returners \u2013 eight of which with eight or more appearances last season \u2013 that combined for 217 innings of work.\u00a0
\u2022 The Lobos\u2019 2026 roster is its most experienced in Brown\u2019s tenure, with 18 seniors — six of which being graduate seniors — and 29 of 36 players being upperclassmen.<\/p>\n

TOP BATTING TEAM IN THE NATION IN 2025
New Mexico led the entirety of NCAA D-I in team batting average (.337) and doubles per game (2.79) at the conclusion of the 2026 season, capping off a historic year that saw the Lobos rank among the Top 20 teams in the nation in seven different offensive categories. Four different Lobos ranked among the Top 100 in the nation in individual batting average — Khalil Walker<\/a> (#23, .397), Jordy Oriach<\/a> (#29, .395), Josh McAlister<\/a> (#78, .371) and Ethan Ott<\/a> (#91, .368) — they ranked Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 5 in the Mountain West.<\/p>\n

UNM\u2019s huge offensive year also saw the Lobos match a program record with 93 homers and notch the second-highest team slugging (.574) and sixth-best on-base percentage (.425) in school history.<\/p>\n

Stat
\nRank
\nValue<\/p>\n

Batting Average
\n1
\n0.337<\/p>\n

Home Runs Per Game
\n16
\n1.75<\/p>\n

Doubles Per Game
\n1
\n2.79<\/p>\n

Total Doubles
\n4
\n148<\/p>\n

Triples Per Game
\n69
\n0.26<\/p>\n

Total Triples
\n69
\n14<\/p>\n

Slugging Percentage
\n3
\n0.574<\/p>\n

On Base Percentage
\n13
\n0.425<\/p>\n

Scoring
\n8
\n9.2<\/p>\n

Fielding Percentage
\n98
\n0.973<\/p>\n

ASHBY\u2019S BIG RETURN
After spending the 2024 season at Kansas and winning the NCAA D-II Championship with Tampa in 2025, Lenny Junior Ashby<\/a> is once more a Lobo for his final year of collegiate eligibility. The Aruban outfielder was a two-time All-MW selection in his first two seasons at UNM in 2022 and 2023, batting for a .361 average across 105 appearances in that span to go with 36 doubles, 26 homers, 110 RBI and 88 runs scored.
In his four years of collegiate baseball, Ashby has batted .325 in 205 games, driving in 165 runs and scoring 145 more while hitting 51 doubles, four triples and 36 homers.<\/p>\n

SUPER SENIORS ABOUND
UNM boasts six graduate seniors on this year\u2019s roster \u2013 OF Lenny Junior Ashby<\/a>, RHP Josh Barnhouse<\/a>, LHP Matthew Cornelius<\/a>, OF Garrett Rede<\/a>, LHP Matthew Romero<\/a> and OF Khalil Walker<\/a> \u2013 with Barnhouse, Cornelius, Romero and Walker all returning from last season. In total, the Lobos have 18 seniors on roster, the most Coach Tod Brown<\/a> has had on a team in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

THE BULLPEN
\u2022 2025 weekend starters RHP Ryan Castillo<\/a> and RHP Cristian Mogen<\/a> both look to headline the Lobos\u2019 staff after promising performances in starting roles last season.
\u2022 After racking up 10 saves last season, RHP Ty Cunningham<\/a> (21 App., 5.91 ERA, 32 IP) will move into a more high-volume non-closing role this year — high-leverage relievers Josh Barnhouse<\/a> (28 App., 6.07 ERA, 43 IP) and Luke Wiseman<\/a> (25 App., 4.45 ERA, 30.1) also project to work more innings in their final collegiate seasons after being reliable in 2025.
\u2022 RHP Talor Grubbs<\/a> (East Carolina) and Logan Barnett<\/a> (Dayton\/Heartland CC) add two more physical arms with D1 experience.
\u2022 Lefties Matt Cornelius (8 App.) and Matthew Romero<\/a> (12 App.) both return for a grad year to make it nine returning arms with multiple appearances last season.<\/p>\n

THE LINEUP
\u2022 A pair of two-time All-MW outfielders stand out in UNM\u2019s new-look lineup — two-time MW batting champion Khalil Walker<\/a> (.396 career avg.) and the returning Lenny Junior Ashby<\/a> (.325 career avg.).
\u2022 The lefty power bat Ashby (26 HR, 110 career RBI at UNM) looks to replace the production of Regional POTY Jordy Oriach<\/a> after he transferred to Georgia in the offseason.
\u2022 The Lobos also get back Albuquerque native Akili Carris<\/a> for his senior season after a productive 2025 that saw him hit a career-high .345 on the season and drive in 44 runs — he\u2019s started at third base in 71 games over the last two seasons.
\u2022 Luke Mansy<\/a> (.353 average in 2025) returns after becoming a crucial part of UNM\u2019s lineup down the stretch last season, as does SS Karsen Waslefsky<\/a> (.298 average, 116 assists, .959 fielding percentage in 2025).
\u2022 Hawaii transfer Aidan Kuni<\/a> looks to hold it down at first base and Houston transfer Tristan Russell<\/a> will contend for an infield starting spot. Juco transfers Anthony Diaz<\/a> (College of Central Florida) and Antonio Gianni<\/a> (Central Arizona) also slot in as options in the outfield, as do Damian Garcia<\/a> (Texas Southern) and Garrett Rede<\/a> (Regis).<\/p>\n

LONG BALL LOBOS
In 2025, 15 different players combined for 93 New Mexico home runs to match a school single-season record set in 2003. UNM ranked 30th in NCAA D1 in total homers and averaged 1.75 homers per game, good for 16th in the nation.
Josh McAlister<\/a> (17) ranked third in the MW in total bombs, with Jordy Oriach<\/a> (16) and Ethan Ott<\/a> (16) just behind. Will Asby<\/a> (13), Tye Wood<\/a> (5), Andrew Neil<\/a> (4), Caleb Herd<\/a> (4), Karsen Waslefsky<\/a> (5), Gene Trujillo<\/a> (3) and Khalil Walker<\/a> (4) all finished with multiple.<\/p>\n

Rank
\nHome Runs
\nSeason<\/p>\n

T1
\n93
\n2025<\/p>\n

T1
\n93
\n2003<\/p>\n

2
\n91
\n1998<\/p>\n

3
\n87
\n2023<\/p>\n

4
\n85
\n1999<\/p>\n

5
\n82
\n2005<\/p>\n

6
\n75
\n2004<\/p>\n

7
\n72
\n2024<\/p>\n

8
\n70
\n1985<\/p>\n

9
\n69
\n2005<\/p>\n

10
\n67
\n2022<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALL-TIME SERIES\u2022 UNM is 32-12 against Northern Colorado in an all-time series that began in 1959, with all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-183223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}