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Big opportunities were few and far between in Sunday's Mountain West baseball series finale between New Mexico and visiting Air Force.

The Falcons made the most of theirs.

Garrett Hutchins belted a second-inning grand slam and Air Force claimed a series win with an 8-4 victory at sunny Lobo Baseball Field.

UNM won the opener 9-7 on Friday and the Falcons the second game 11-1 on Saturday.

The loss all but dashed the Lobos鈥� hopes of earning a first-round bye at the Mountain West tournament, which is scheduled from May 21-24 in Mesa, Arizona. The top two seeds in the six-team event avoid the single-elimination first round.

UNM (26-20-1, 11-9-1) finished the day fifth place in the standings, 2 1/2 games behind second-place Air Force (23-22, 14-7) with three league games to play. 

And while the Lobos are still in position to lock up a berth in the conference tournament in their final MW series next weekend at Grand Canyon, they know they鈥檒l need a better showing than the one against Air Force.

鈥淲e鈥檝e got to hit more,鈥� UNM coach Tod Brown said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really that simple. We haven鈥檛 been swinging the bats well for the last four, five weeks 鈥� not well enough to win, especially at (Lobo Field). We scored one run and four runs in the last two games of this series. That won鈥檛 get the job done.鈥�

Antonio Gianni was a bright spot for the Lobos on Sunday, going 3-for-3 with two doubles, a walk and an RBI, raising his batting average to .340. His teammates, however, went a combined 5-for-38 with nine strikeouts.

The Falcons were just marginally better. They finished 8-for-35 overall with five strikeouts against three New Mexico pitchers. But Air Force came up with big hits when needed, including a homer by Christian Taylor, an RBI triple by Wyatt Hannoian and back-to-back doubles in the ninth inning that stretched a 6-3 lead to 8-3.

Still, the game鈥檚 biggest swing belonged to Hutchins, whose bases-loaded blast to right field gave the Falcons an early 4-0 lead. Air Force loaded the bases on a single, a walk and a hit batsman against Lobos starter Diego Alvarez (1-4).

It stood in stark contrast to the seventh inning, when UNM used a walk, a hit batsman and an error to load the bases with no outs. Lenny Junior Ashby then rolled into a 6-4-3 double play and the Lobos scored just once in the inning.

鈥�(The Falcons) had the bases loaded and hit a ball in the parking lot,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淲e got a big break on an error to load the bases and hit into a double play. That鈥檚 really the difference in the game right there.鈥�

UNM trailed 5-0 after three innings but stayed within striking distance thanks to solid relief pitching by Josh Barnhouse and Talor Grubbs, who combined to retire 11 Air Force batters in a row at one point. The Lobos simply couldn鈥檛 come up with enough big swings to capitalize.

UNM鈥檚 Akili Carris homered, his third of the season, in the ninth, but it wasn鈥檛 enough to send 858 fans home happy on senior day. The Lobos have one home game remaining, May 12 against New Mexico State.

Note: UNM was without starting shortstop Karsen Waslefski on Sunday after he suffered a pulled hamstring during Saturday鈥檚 game. Brown said the injury was not considered severe and hopes Waslefski will be available at GCU.