New Mexico beats BYU in ninth

ALBUQUERQUE — Daniel Stovall's walk-off single up the middle Friday lifted New Mexico to a 4-3 victory over BYU at Isotopes Park.

The Lobos chipped away at BYU's 3-0 lead for the second night in a row, but this time they won and improved their record to 22-24 overall and 8-9 in the Mountain West Conference. The Cougars (27-17, 11-6) saw their five-game winning streak end.

"The game wasn't lost in the ninth, it was lost when we had opportunities to score," said BYU coach Vance Law. "We've got to do a better job of putting the ball in play. We didn't execute. We took too many pitches. We've got to do a better job of advancing runners."

BYU stranded 10 runners, as did the Lobos, but the Cougars left a runner on second in the second, third and sixth innings as well as the bases loaded in the ninth.

Kasey Ko hit a double down the left-field corner, but was stranded on second in the second.

BYU did deliver with the bases loaded in the third when Steve Parker hit a two-out, two-run single to center field to put BYU on the board with a 2-0 advantage.

Drew McDonald hit a leadoff double in the third for the Lobos' first hit of the game. He advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt. Jordan Muir got the next batter to pop up, then walked Matt Foote before recording his first strikeout of the game to end the inning.

Muir worked out of another jam after surrendering consecutive two-out singles in the fourth.

Parker delivered again with a runner on third, this time with a two-out single to left, putting BYU up 3-0 in the fifth.

Ko hit a leadoff double in the sixth, followed by consecutive Cougar strikeouts before LaFramboise was relieved on the mound and the Lobos got out of the inning unscathed.

UNM scored its first run of the game with a two-out single by Ian Hollick.

CENTENARY 7, SOUTHERN UTAH 2: At Shreveport, La., four errors by the Thunderbirds in the first three innings of the ball game proved to be costly. The loss narrows the distance between the two teams in conference. SUU now stands at 5-8 with the Gents at 4-5.