THE LEAD
No. 23 DBU defeated New Mexico, 5-1, in the weekend opener on Friday night at Horner Ballpark. Matt Duce went 3-for-4 with an RBI, one run scored and a pair of doubles to fuel the Patriot offense.
 
Jordan Martinson (1-0) earned the win after tossing five innings of one-run baseball with seven strikeouts. Tyler Stevens (0-1) suffered the loss for the Lobos after allowing five runs on eight hits in five innings, despite setting down eight Patriots.
 
After giving up a leadoff single to begin the game, Martinson held New Mexico hitless until there were two outs in the top of the fifth inning. DBU got on the scoreboard first as three men got on board to start the inning, including an RBI double by Duce to knock in Jameson Hannah. The Patriots added two more on a Camden Duzenack RBI single and a sac fly off the bat of Garrett Wolforth. The Lobos threatened in the top of the third, loading the bases on a throwing error by Tim Millard, but Martinson picked up his sixth strikeout and forced Carl Stajduhar to line out to center to escape the jam.
 
New Mexico got one back in the top of the fifth inning when Luis Gonzalez hit a solo homerun over the outstretched glove of Austin Listi at the right field wall. DBU answered in the bottom of the fifth as Devlin Granberg led off the top of the frame with a triple to right field, scoring two batters later on a Listi single. With runners on the corners later in the inning, Millard extended the lead to 5-1, legging out an infield single to bring Listi home. In the bottom of the seventh, the Patriots again put three on base to start an inning, forcing reliever Cody Dye out of the game. However, DBU struck out three times with the bases loaded to end the inning.
 
After allowing the first two men to reach base in the top of the eighth, Jimmy Fouse's 2+ scoreless inning outing came to an end, handing the ball over to Travis Stone. Stone retired the first three batters he saw to end the top of the frame. Closer Seth Elledge came in to finish off the ninth, but loaded the bases with a pair of walks and a Luis Gonzalez single. An error by Logan Sepanek allowed UNM to pull within 5-2, but Elledge forced Stajduhar to fly out in a pressure situation again.  
 
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
 - The Patriots could have done more damage as they hit 5-for-18 with with runners on base and 5-for-15 with runners in scoring position.
 - DBU made up for it on the mound, holding New Mexico to 1-of-15 hitting with runners on.
 - The top three batters in the Patriots lineup combined to go 5-for-12 with four runs scored. 

COACH DAN HEEFNER – ON JUMPING OUT TO AN EARLY LEAD
"It definitely calms everyone down a little bit when you can score early. I'm disappointed though, because we had a bunch of opportunities to tack on a run here or there that would've made things a lot more comfortable at the end."
 
JORDAN MARTINSON – ON BOUNCING BACK FROM HIS OPENING NIGHT START
"I think a consistent delivery is something that I was missing last week and that's expected early. We've got to fine tune some things in all aspects. I figured it out tonight and hopefully we'll keep rolling the same way."
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
350 – Dan Heefner won his 350^th career game at DBU on Friday.
3 – Three of the Lobos' four hits came from Luis Gonzalez.
11 – The Patriots' pitching forced New Mexico to strand 11 men on base.
 
UP NEXT
DBU and UNM play the second game of the weekend series at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Horner Ballpark. Trevor Conn (1-0) takes the mound for the Patriots against Carson Schneider (1-0) for the Lobos.