NM State bats go cold as Aggies suffer 4-0 defeat to the Hornets
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NM State follow their Friday doubleheader split with back-to-back losses to No. 24 Sac State. (Photo courtesy of NMSU Athletics)
The New Mexico State baseball team looked to bounce back from a Saturday loss with a potential series-tying win against Top-25 ranked Sacramento State Sunday afternoon, but could not generate anything from the batter’s box, falling 4-0 and dropping the series 3-1.
After splitting the opening day games, the Sacramento State Hornets took back the series lead with a 9-6 win in yesterday’s matchup, getting out to an early 6-1 lead and never looking back. NM State would manage to pull back the last five runs of the game, but the lead would prove insurmountable, resulting in a 9-6 Aggie loss.
Both sides registered nine hits, but it was the Hornets who brought their runners home, as NM State leaving a lot of meat on the bone as far as runners as base is concerned.
Looking at todays game, the Aggies had a similar start as their showing Saturday, failing to score through three innings and falling behind 3-0 after a three-run home run by Steven Moretto in the second.
The Aggies’ struggles continued as they only managed three hits through five innings. Every time someone got on base the Aggies could not get anything going behind them and left all three hits on base.
Finally, after a long stretch of neither side getting anything going, Sacramento State added an RBI in the bottom of the eighth on a Trevor Doyle single to left field and that brought Chris Gonzalez home, adding a run to a 4-0 lead. After the end of the eighth, NM State only added on two more hits that amounted to nothing, leaving seven on base with their five hits.
Not getting anything in the ninth, the Aggies went three up, three down, eliminating any chance at a comeback despite a strong relief efforts at the mound from Frank Dickson Jr. and Lyle Hibbits, who gave up just six hits and no earned runs in their six-plus innings.
On the other side the Hornets totaled 11 hits, but left 11 of their own on base, struggling when comparing it to their stronger showings of the weekend, but generating enough offense to seal a 4-0 win to clinch the series.
After a long stretch of being away, New Mexico State finally comes home to The Skew to host GCU in another WAC series starting next Friday at 6:00 P.M., and as always, can be caught on the WAC Digital Network.
Trent Nickell is a junior at New Mexico State University and in his first year at The Round Up. He is currently studying Communication Studies and is loving...