THE LEAD
DBU won for the second straight time at the Lubbock Regional as the Patriots knocked off New Mexico, 5-3, to eliminate the Lobos on Sunday afternoon at Rip Griffin Park.  Camden Duzenack and Matt Duce each hit solo home runs for the Patriots, while Dalton Higgins notched his ninth win of the season, throwing four innings of solid relief and allowing just one run.  With the win, DBU (43-18) advances to play Texas Tech in the regional final.
 
The Patriot offense got on the board early with a first inning run when Jameson Hannah led off the game with a double and came around to score on a two-out single from Darick Hall.  For Hall, the line drive to left broke a tie for the fifth most RBIs in a Division I season at DBU as the lefthander picked up his 71st of the year.
 
Camden Duzenack pushed the early lead to 2-0 with a leadoff homerun to left field in the second, his fifth homerun in his last 14 games.  The Lobos would cut that lead in half without the benefit of a hit in the bottom of the inning when a leadoff walk came around to score on a wild pitch, sacrifice bunt, and a sacrifice fly.  New Mexico (39-23) tied the game in the third inning, again with the benefit of free bases, as two walks and a single knotted the game at two.
 
The Patriots regained a one-run advantage in the fifth inning when Hannah once again reached to open the frame and came around on Trooper Reynolds' two-out RBI single.  Clinging to that one-run lead, Dan Heefner summoned his bullpen in the bottom of the inning after Jared Holley singled against Martinson to put the tying run on base.  
 
Dalton Higgins came out with the runner at first and immediately induced a ground ball double play. Two singles and a walk followed to load the bases ,but Higgins got a pop up to second to end the threat and keep the lead to the sixth inning.
 
In that sixth inning, the teams traded runs.  For DBU, Matt Duce came on as a pinch hitter and singled to center.  He moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Tim Millard's single to center to pad the lead. The Lobos got that run right back in the bottom of the inning when a one-out double was followed by a single to right.  Higgins quickly closed the frame with a 6-3 double play and the Patriots took a one-run lead into the final third of the game.
 
In the seventh, free bases almost came back to haunt the Patriots again, but Higgins pitched his way out of an ominous situation and helped himself with some stellar defense.  A hit batter, a walk, and a sacrifice bunt put the go-ahead runs in scoring position with one out.  
 
The Lobos made a bid for the lead when Jared Mang hit a screaming comebacker up the middle that Higgins flagged down on a hop.  The righthander then looked to home to catch the runner halfway down the line before flipping to Duce who ran the runner back to third for a tag out.  A harmless ground ball to Reynolds at second ended the inning and DBU retained their one run lead to the eighth inning.
 
Having acquired a taste for the dramatic at last week's Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, Duce once again placed himself in Patriot lore with a leadoff homerun to right field in the eighth inning.  The no-doubt shot gave Higgins a two-run lead with six outs to get.  The Patriot reliever pitched around a single and an error in the eighth inning and his offense tried to give him some insurance for the ninth inning. 
The Patriots put runners on second and third after Austin Listi walked, Hall singled, and Reynolds sacrificed them over.  After an intentional walk to David Martinelli loaded the bases, Duzenack scorched a groundball to the left of shortstop Dalton Bowers that would have extended the lead but Bowers laid out to corral the baseball and turned a nifty double play to end the threat.
 
Clinging to a two-run advantage going into the bottom of the ninth, Landon Wilson came out of the pen.  After surrendering a two-out double to Jared Mang, Wilson got Reece Weber to ground out to second to close out the game.
 
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- With the win, DBU advances to their fourth regional final in the last six years.
- Dalton Higgins is now tied for the team lead with Colin Poche and Darick Hall with nine wins.
- DBUs' 43 wins are the third most in the program's Division I era dating back to 2004.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
19 – Jameson Hannah notched his 19th multi-hit game of the year, which ties him with David Martinelli for the team lead in that category.
6 – Six different Patriots delivered multi-hit games including Matt Duce, Darick Hall, Jameson Hannah, Austin Listi, Trooper Reynolds, and Justin Wall.
5 – DBU was 5-for-12 at the plate in two-out situations.  The Patriots also got the lead-off man in five of the nine innings.
 
UP NEXT
DBU will face Texas Tech in the Lubbock Regional Final on Sunday at 6:15 p.m.  The Patriots must defeat the Red Raiders to force a deciding game tomorrow.