Making his first start since his freshman year, junior right-handed pitcher Mark Melancon didn’t fare well in Friday night’s 6-5 loss to New Mexico.

Though the native of Golden, Colo., did strike out seven Lobos, Melancon (1-1) surrendered all six runs – five earned – on eight hits over five innings of work to take the loss for the Wildcats (5-4).

“”He got hit,”” Arizona head coach Andy Lopez said. “”They got hits.””

During one point in the game, five straight Lobos reached base with singles.

“”I’m not sure I’ve seen anybody get five hits in a row off him in two years,”” Lopez said of the converted closer. “”Was I surprised? … Yeah, I was surprised.””

Lopez attributed the poor outing to a “”lack of a second pitch and lack of location with his fastball,”” but added that to begin the game, “”he was punch-out, punch-out, punch-out,”” referring to Melancon’s four strikeouts in the first two innings.

Regardless of the rocky start to the fireballer’s insertion into the rotation, Lopez said he plans on sticking with Melancon, at least for the near future.

“”We’ve got to find a Friday night guy,”” he said. “”Come on, he’s a Friday night guy. If it happens again next Friday, then we’ll have some concerns.””

Andy Lopez, one-man comedy act

Widely regarded as one of this campus’ most animated coaches, Lopez didn’t disappoint Sunday afternoon. Some of the you know what? The goal here is that you’re supposed to get better every day out. I literally have forgotten the first two weekends after this weekend.””

On Sunday’s game, which lasted a season-long four hours and four minutes:

“”This one seemed a month, like it seemed like going to a dentist appointment without any Novocain.””

On Arizona’s eight-run third inning:

“”Didn’t the third inning happen like Sept. 1? We scored eight runs?””

On the same game, which saw the teams combine for 35 runs on 38 hits:

“”It was just survival. I feel like I had been on the TV show, and I made it. I lost 40 pounds, I fought dysentery and I got ring worms. And I didn’t brush my teeth very much. That was survival.””

Elaborating on the same topic, a 19-16 victory:

“”Our post patterns worked a lot better than theirs. That’s basically what happened. We kicked an extra field goal, we ran a couple post patterns, and their safety misread it and we scored two touchdowns, and they didn’t.””