The New Mexico State softball team’s hot streak came to an end Tuesday night after UNM put together a monster performance from the plate, defeating the Aggies 13-4 in only six innings.

NMSU was in the midst of their longest winning streak of the season entering Tuesday’s game, but the Lobos jumped in front early and never looked back. UNM kicked things off with an RBI double and pushed their early lead to 3-0 with a two-run home run in the top of the first.

“From the very first swing, I knew we were in trouble because they had decided that collectively they were going to come down for a rivalry game and attack us as a unit,” head coach Kathy Rodolph said when asked about UNM’s strong start. “They just flat out wanted it more than we did.”

The Aggies responded well early in the game, scoring a run in each of the first three innings, including a Kelsey Horton homer in the bottom of the third that looked like it would turn the tide for NMSU, but UNM was consistently aggressive, hitting the ball 14 times and scoring the final seven runs of the game.

The Lobos sealed the deal with a five-run sixth inning that featured UNM’s third home run of the game. NMSU would have had to score three runs to avoid getting run-ruled and extend the game to a full seven innings, but a third straight scoreless inning would clinch the loss.

Prior to tonight’s game, the Aggies were winners of their last six, including a 12-7 win over UNM in Albuquerque a couple of weeks ago, but this loss, which was the program’s first loss to the Lobos in their last 10 games facing each other, was reminiscent of the dry stretch that preceded the impressive last few weeks.

“I think this was absolutely a wakeup call to us. Basically we have to come out to play every single night — you don’t just show up and think that great things are going to happen,” Rodolph said. “People are hungry… I’ve challenged us really hard to come out tomorrow to mentally get our composure and be able to execute under pressure.”

NMSU (18-15, 3-0 WAC) is still the only undefeated team left in the conference and will look to keep that unblemished WAC record alive when they host CSU-Bakersfield this weekend, but if the Aggies want to win their fourth straight conference title, they can’t have many more games like this one.