LAS VEGAS, N.M. --- The New Mexico Highlands baseball team closes out its home schedule and looks to keep its postseason hopes alive as the Cowboys host CSU-Pueblo for a four-game series starting Friday at Brandt Field.
The Cowboys are in seventh place in the RMAC at 8-20 - seven games behind the ThunderWolves for the final RMAC Tournament spot with eight games to go. This means NMHU needs to at least go 7-1 while CSU-Pueblo goes 1-7 (the ThunderWolves host UC Colorado Springs in the final weekend of the season while NMHU travels to Adams State) to tie the ThunderWolves and would own the tiebreaker.
The Cowboys are coming off a series where it went 1-3 against No. 1 Colorado Mesa - beating the Mavericks in the second game of a doubleheader Friday thanks to a two-homer, six-RBI performance by
Carlos Ramirez. NMHU has played 17 of their 42 games this season against ranked opponents (3-14 in those games).
Auggie Francis continues to pace the Cowboys and was just named the RMAC Baseball Academic Player of the Year on Wednesday. He's hitting .409 with nine homers, nine doubles, six triples, 30 RBI, 54 runs and 15 stolen bases as he's second in the RMAC in batting average, third in on-base percentage (.497) and seventh in slugging percentage (.711).
NMHU senior
Kyle Bedsole was solid lost week for the Cowboys on the mound, holding the potent CMU bats to two earned runs on five hits with four strikeouts and a walk in tossing a complete game in NMHU's 3-2 loss to the Mavs in the first game Saturday.
CSU-Pueblo took three of four on the road last week at Adams State in a trio of high scoring games, winning 27-8, 11-7 and 13-5 and losing 14-12.
The ThunderWolves have been paced by their bats with six hitters above .300 - including two above .400 in Rion Santamaria (.405, 3 HR, 32 RBI) and Easton Adler (.405, HR, 10 RBI, 35 R, 13 SB). Dakota Popham has been the team's top power threat with eight home runs, 15 doubles, 49 RBI and 47 runs.
On the mound, the ThunderWolves have a 7.55 ERA - but do feature two of the top strikeout pitchers in the conference in Beau Brieske (5-4, 4.79 ERA, 96 strikeouts in 62 innings) and Josh Dahl (4-4, 6.04 ERA, 79 strikeouts in 56.2 innings).
