Baseball team looks to maintain dominance over New Mexico

Matt Heistand Arizona Daily Wildcat Junior pitcher Rob Shabansky throws a slider during last weekend's winning series against San Diego. Shabansky has the leading record of 2-0.

Their football team lost the Insight.com Bowl, the basketball team got clobbered by 19 points and even the swim team was no match.

If UNM ever wants to beat the Wildcats, it might have to wait a while longer, since this weekend's matchup between the two school's baseball squads favors the Wildcats.

Lobo head coach Rich Alday, who is from Tucson, said he looks forward to playing here because he gets to see his family and friends.

He does not, however, look fondly on the notion of playing the unbeaten Wildcats (5-0), who are ranked No. 24 in the country

"I don't," Alday said when asked if he wants to play the Wildcats. "But we've got to go south for the warmer weather. It's either the Wildcats or the Sun Devils or some Texas team."

This is the seventh straight year the Lobos have opened their season against UA at Frank Sancet Field. The three-game series starts today at 3 p.m. and continues tomorrow and Sunday with both games at 1 p.m.

With a young pitching staff facing a UA offense that scored 70 runs in its first five games, Alday said the Lobos' game plan is simple.

"If they're going to beat us, we want them to beat us. We don't want to beat ourselves," Alday said.

UA head coach Jerry Stitt said the Lobos are never the same team when they come to Tucson.

"They're different every time (we play)," Stitt said. "They do things year after year that change. They always play us hard, though."

Arizona holds a huge advantage in the all-time series, winning 110 of the 138 games played.

Last year, the Wildcats won two of three games. New Mexico beat Arizona 7-3 in the first game, which was the season opener for both teams. The Wildcats bounced back and won the next two games 6-4 and 8-1.

The probable pitching matchups for the weekend have UA's Darrell Hussman (0 wins, 0 losses, 5.40 ERA in 1998) squares off against James Serrano (4-6, 4.32 at McNeese State in 1997) today. James Johnson (0-0, 5.19) versus Joe Abell (2-0, 4.34 in 1997) on Saturday and Rob Shabansky (2-0, 1.13) faces Rick Gonzales (3-4, 6.65 in 1997) on Sunday.