After being swept in a three-game series last weekend against Minnesota, baseball will look for a better result at the Fuddruckers Lobo Invite against Missouri State and New Mexico in Albuquerque, N.M. this weekend.

The Huskies (0-3) will play in a double-header on Friday against the Bears (2-1) and Lobos (2-2). On Saturday, the Huskies will take on the Bears. Then, they will close out their weekend out against the Lobos on Sunday.

“They’re both very good programs, if I’m not mistaken, both of them were in the NCAA Regionals last year,” said head coach Ed Mathey. “Missouri State’s from the Missouri Valley Conference, and they’ve had a lot of good players come through there. They return[ed] a lot of guys from last year’s team. New Mexico… they’ve got it rolling there. They were a preseason top-30 in a lot of polls, had a rough start last weekend in San Diego, lost two out of three, but they came back last night and they beat a pretty good Arizona State team, 7-1 on the road.”

Despite being swept by Minnesota, the Huskies were pleased with their first live game action of the season. They were competitive in all three games while making improvements at the plate by cutting down on their strikeouts and putting the ball in play.

“We had a chance to win all three of those games, and that’s where you want to be,” Mathey said. “So, I think that we’ve got some things we have to learn and make some adjustments to, but having said that I think one of the best adjustments we made was, you know, game one we struck out 14 or 15 times, and from there we were good, we made some adjustments so I think that’s a valuable thing for us to learn, what putting the ball in play can do for you, a better two-strike approach and the guys made those adjustments so I think that going forward will help us out.”

On the mound, pitchers Eli Anderson, Jordan Ruckman and Alex Klonowski will each look to build on their first starts of the season. Anderson gave the strongest debut of the trio, going seven innings while giving up just three hits and one earned run on 71 pitches. He also struck out three batters.

In the three games, Mathey got to get a look at some of the younger players who he hasn’t seen in live-game action yet. He was impressed with sophomore Justin Fletcher who batted leadoff in all three games, playing at shortstop, second base and as a designated hitter. Fletcher went 3-13 with two runs scored and one RBI.

“Justin Fletcher did a great job hitting leadoff,” Mathey said. “He went in there and competed, had some really good at bats and drove the ball hard.”

Senior Chris Divarco also had a strong weekend playing at first base and batting as the designated hitter for the Huskies. He led the Huskies in hits, going 7-12 at the plate while scoring two runs and driving in two RBIs.

“Even though he’s not a young guy, Chris Divarco hasn’t had extended playing time here, he’s been behind Jeff Zimmerman,” Mathey said. “Jeff Zimmerman is a professional player now and Chris just went out and swung the bat just unbelievably, and hopefully he can stay near that pace for the rest of the year because it was a very good show he put on.”