ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – It’s opening weekend for the UNM baseball team as the Lobos will participate in the 2025 MLB Desert Invitational in Arizona. The Lobos will play three different teams in three days for the tournament followed by a trip to Tucson to play the University of Arizona.
UNM is coming off a season where it finished second place in the Mountain West and earned a bid in the conference tournament for the first time in seven years. The Lobos win total has improved every year under head coach Tod Brown and the belief around the program is that trend will continue.
“The goal of last year’s team was to make it to the Mountain West tournament and the goal of this year’s team is to win it,” said outfielder Will Asby. “We’ve been there now, we know what it’s like, we know what it takes to get there and now we just have to put everything together and I know that we have enough talent to win it this year.”
The Lobos have recently been among the best in the nation at the plate in multiple categories including batting average, on base percentage and slugging percentage. The run production is expected to return as four of the Lobos top hitters are back in the lineup for 2025.
On the mound, three pitchers who saw significant time in 2024 (Dayne Pengelly, David Lopez and Daxton Purser) are in line to have significant roles in 2025.
The Lobos open the tournament against Austin Peay on Friday at 5:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on MLB.TV.