u i ' U ty BYU Friday s;vg)e Ute rightfielder Mike Moore turns and waves his glove after spearing the final out in Thursday's WAC Playoff game. The Utes will go on to face BYU in second-round action Friday. by John Youngren Chronicle staff PROVO In a game with a final score of 14-13, you probably wouldn't expect the key to the contest to be the pitching. Especially not with the Utes. Ah, but it's a funny game, this baseball. Because behind Nathan Nelson, the Utes managed not only to come back but to hang on through two innings and hold off New Mexico for a first-round win in the WAC playoffs here Thursday afternoon. "Hopefully, we put a little respect for us into the teams from the (WAC's) South. We can play the game of baseball," Ute Coach Lonnie Keeter said. The win will send the Utes up against Northern WAC rival BYU here Friday at 1 p.m. Nelson, coming into the game for Mark Duran in the seventh, didn't give up a hit or a run in keeping the Lobos at bay and retired the side in the ninth for his fifth save of the year. But it wasn't all so easy for the Utes. In fact, they were lucky Nelson had a game to save. After jumping out to a quick 6-0 lead in the opening two innings on a collection of scrap singles in the first and a Chris Shultis three-run homer in the second, Utah bats went to sleep for four innings while allowing Ute starter Curtis Carman to get racked around for seven runs. The Lobos scored five in the bottom of the second when John Snyder pounded a two run homer and Jay Slotnick connected on a three-run shot. An inning later, Snyder sent another one over the fence, chasing Carman from the game and sending the Utes, who had been leading 6-0, back into the dugout down 7-6. After New Mexico lopped on another pair of runs in the fifth and sixth innings, Utah's Fernando Carmona connected for his 12th homer of the year in the top of the seventh to draw Utah back within six. Pinch-hitter Brad Helmer led off with a single; Troy Davis and Mike Barnett walked to load the bases. Shultis popped a high fly that dropped between three Lobo fielders down the right field line. Just like that, the Utes scored a pair. Shortstop Mike Dandos singled, scoring Barnett, Mike Moore got on, scoring Shultis, Rod Gust got on, scoring Dandos and Moore. Just like that, the game was tied at 13. "This team has depended so much on its hitting all year that if we get down by five or six runs, it doesn't bother us," Keeter said. After Duran struck out the Lobo leadofT man in the eighth, a New Mexico single chased him and Keeter brought in Nelson. The freshman pulled his teammates out of the jam with a quick chopper to the shortstop and fly to Moore in right. "Nate's been the man in that spot all year and there was no question that we had to go with what got us there," Keeter said. So with things back up to them, the Utes went to work. Barnett walked and went to second when Lobo second baseman Jim Logan overthrew first. Shultis popped a single into right, and after Dandos struck out, Barnett scored on a short fly into left field. Utah 14, New Mexico 13. Nelson moved threw the bottom of the inning like clockwork. He got Greg Hall on a hard shot to deep shortstop, he got Brian Hubbard on a tapper to second and he got Snyder he of the two home runs on a tailing line drive into right field. "Even if I had to walk (Snyder) I was going to keep it low," Nelson said. "It was a 3-1 fastball, which is not my best pitch, but it's what you've got to throw."