Head Coach Ray Birmingham
FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
Lobo baseball head coach Ray Birmingham recently announced the University of New Mexico schedule for 2009. The Lobos will face five Top 25 teams from 2008, including NCAA College World Series semifinalist Stanford.
“This schedule will be tougher than last season,” said Birmingham. “We played 22 games last season against teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament. If we are going to be nationally-ranked and advance to the post-season, we have to play these high-caliber teams to get there.”
In Birmingham’s first season at the helm, the Lobos watched their RPI jump dramatically to 66 in 2008 from 167 in 2007. The Lobos were ranked as high as 46 in the RPI midway through the season. This season’s schedule features Top 25 teams Arizona, Nebraska, Stanford, Texas A&M, and TCU.
The Lobos will get the 2009 season started on Feb. 20-22 with a four-game series against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Isotopes Park. UNM will take a quick two-day road trip to Texas Tech on Feb. 24-25 before returning to Isotopes Park for a 12-game homestand against Northern Colorado (Feb. 27-March 1), New Mexico State (March 3), Binghamton (March 6-8) and Air Force. The Air Force series on March 13-15 will begin Mountain West Conference play.
UNM will take just its second trip of the season on March 17-18 to Big 12 power Texas A&M. The Lobos will host an 8-game homestand with Northwestern (March 20-22), BYU (March 26-28) and Texas Tech (March 31-April1).
The Lobos will spend the second half of the season on the road with just two home series in the last 10 of the season. MWC play will continue with back-to-back series at TCU (April 3-5) and Utah (April 9-11), followed by a non-conference series at Arizona (April 14-15).
UNM returns home for a MWC series with San Diego State on April 17-19, then heads back out on the road to New Mexico State (April 21), BYU (April 23-25) and Nebraska (April 28-29).
The final home series of the season will be against UNLV on May 1-3. The Lobos will finish the regular season on the road at Stanford (May 8-10) and Air Force (May 14-16).
The Mountain West Conference Tournament returns to Fort Worth, Texas, on May 19-23.
