ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – “Nowhere to breathe.”
That’s how UNM head baseball coach Ray Birmingham described his team’s 2015 schedule, which was officially released Tuesday.
The Lobos will face seven teams that advanced to the 2014 NCAA Tournament, including the No. 1 overall seed Oregon State Beavers, super regional participant Houston, and Texas Tech, which advanced all the way to the College World Series. Also on the docket are Arizona State, Kansas and Mountain West foes San Diego State and UNLV.
“This is another hard schedule,” said Birmingham, who is entering his eighth season as head coach. “It’s really hard, especially for a team that is still very young in regards to position players.”
UNM opens the season in the Surprise Tournament held in Surprise, Ariz. The Lobos face Michigan State in their season-opener on Friday, Feb. 13 before taking on Northwestern the next day. They close the tournament with games the next two days against the aforementioned Beavers.
The following weekend marks the opening of Mountain West play as the defending conference co-champion Lobos visit Air Force in what’s sure to be a chilly three games from Feb. 20-22. Despite the historic struggles the Falcons have had, they went 13-6 at home last season, including an eight-game winning streak. To prove how difficult it was to win at Air Force, UNM was one of just two teams, along with Fresno State, to win a series there in 2014.
The Lobos then open their home schedule with a season-long nine-game homestand, beginning with the Lobo Invite. They’ll face Utah Valley at 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 27 in their home opener, and will play a pair of games against both the Wolverines and the University of San Francisco.
“It should be a good tournament with two quality teams coming in,” Birmingham said.
UNM will play single games Friday and Sunday and then play both Utah Valley and USF in a doubleheader Sunday.
San Diego State visits Lobo Field the following weekend, and two midweek games against Stephen F. Austin March 10 and 11 conclude the homestand.
What follows is UNM’s toughest stretch of the season by far. It begins with a series at Nevada, which Birmingham believes will be one of the top teams in the Mountain West.
“Nevada has everyone back, so they should be a conference favorite,” he said.
NCAA Tournament teams await following the Wolf Pack as midweek road games at Arizona State and Texas Tech are sandiwched around a home series against Houston. A home series versus Fresno State precedes a return visit by Texas Tech on Tuesday, March 31.
The brutal stretch concludes with a series at San Diego State and two midweek games at Kansas. In the span of 22 days, the Lobos will play 11 games against 2014 postseason participants. If you include Nevada in that group, UNM has 14 contests against potential 2015 NCAA Tournament teams in 27 days.
“There’s no doubt about it,” Birmingham said. “This schedule has lots of RPI points in it.”
Following the tough stretch is a five-game homestand against Air Force and Grand Canyon, which is followed by a trip to UNLV.
The Lobos will then face Rio Grande Rival New Mexico State on Tuesday, April 21 in the first of two games between the programs. The return game is scheduled for May 5 in Las Cruces, N.M.
Following the first matchup with the Aggies the Lobos will play their last weekend non-conference series of the season as they travel to Wichita State.
UNM concludes the regular season with three Mountain West series: vs. Nevada May 1-3, vs. San José State May 8-10, and at Fresno State May 14-16. The Lobos will also host Arizona State on Tuesday, May 12.
The Mountain West Tournament is scheduled to run from Wednesday, May 20 to Sunday, May 24.
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