The weekend at The ‘Skew was electric as the New Mexico State University baseball campaign played tough conference opponent UTRGV. Bats were hot in this series for both teams as a total of 44 runs were scored throughout the three games. The UTRGV (12-11, 3-6 WAC) offense just had it more offensively than New Mexico State (4-17, 2-7 WAC), as they would take the final two games after a promising NMSU win on Friday.

The south side of the bleachers was filled top to bottom with Vaqueros fans who made their way from Edinburg, Texas, for the three-game series. Pre and postgame tailgates between both fan bases gave this matchup an authentic feel for the players and baseball fans alike.

Having won three of their last five games, NMSU was ready to ride their momentum into the weekend behind their ace, Treyjen Meza. Meza pitched a consistently as ever in game one, going for 6.1 innings and striking out seven en route to his first win of the season. The inability to clean up on the little things has tormented the Aggies all season. They opened this game giving up three runs because of some detrimental fielding errors. For the first half of the game, it looked as if the home team would have to play from behind for the entirety of the game like they had done several games prior. However, starting in the bottom of the fifth, the Aggies started seeing the ball and would hit three homers to score six runs over the next two innings.

The batters got on base and executed with runners in scoring position to give themselves a 9-5 win to open the series. It was the first time all season that New Mexico State won the series opener.

The solid play carried into Saturday’s game as the theme was back and forth for the entire game. Home runs from Nick Gore and Preston Godfrey kept NM State in the game late, seeing themselves down one run to end the seventh inning. It was short lived, though, as the Aggies would repeat yet another pattern so prevalent this season – losing the game in one inning. The Vaqueros scored four runs in the final frame to put NMSU down for good for the evening. While the Aggies look like a much more well-rounded team amid conference play, there are still some bad habits that they must shake to get that winning form. NMSU would lose the middle game 4-8 and turn their heads to try to win their first series of the year the next day.

Christian Perez started off the Sunday game with a 2-run homer but the Vaqueros answered right back in the next frame, scoring five runs in the top of the second and four runs in the top of the fifth. Down big, the Aggies saw themselves having to fight back yet again. With UTRGV scoring each inning for the next three, it was too late when Kevin Jimenez homered in the bottom of the ninth, losing 6-12 notching their record to 2-7 in conference play.

Coach Zuniga and New Mexico State now have a full week to regroup and work out the kinks ahead of their next conference series. It won’t get any easier for the Aggies as they will head to Huntsville for a three-game WAC series against top-seeded Sam Houston (15-10, 8-1 WAC). Hopefully they can pull off some tricks and take out the Bearkats during April Fools weekend.