New Mexico’s baseball coaching staff has a distinctly Arizona Wildcats flavor to it. It started with the school hiring ex-UA pitcher Tod Brown to be head coach and continued Tuesday with the addition of former Wildcat pitcher Michael Lopez as pitching coach.
Lopez, the son of former UA head coach Andy Lopez, played for the Wildcats from 2009-12 and was a captain on the 2012 College World Series championship team. After graduating in 2013 he spent two seasons as a volunteer assistant before serving as associate head coach at NAIA school Marymount California University in 2016 and then moving to Howard (Texas) College, where he spent three seasons as an assistant before serving as the junior college’s head coach in 2020-21.