WACO, Texas – The New Mexico State baseball team defeated host Baylor 9-5 in the second game of Friday's doubleheader, after falling to San Diego 5-1 in the first game. Against Baylor, the Aggies were led by Senior Joseph Koerper, who tied a season high of five RBIs.
 
GAME ONE
 
In the first game of the day against San Diego, NM State had difficulty finding an answer to the Torreros pitching. The Aggies were no hit through four innings.
 
The story of the game was the pitcher's duel between USD starter Nick Sprengel and Marcel Renteria, who pitch five innings and only gave up three runs and struck out four.
 
USD didn't get the first run of the game until the bottom of the third. The run came on ground out to short that plated a runner from third.
 
The Torreros scored two more in the home half of the fifth. The first run came home on a bases loaded walk. The second came on a sacrifice fly to left.
 
The Aggies got their only run in the sixth as L.J. Hatch earned a 3-1 walk to lead off the inning. Daniel Johnson managed to a ball to deep right center, getting a triple and scoring Hatch.
 
USD got two more run in the home half. The first run came on a double to left center that scored a run from second. The second run scored on a wild pitch.
 
The Aggies dropped the front end of the twin bill to San Diego 5-1.
 
GAME TWO
 
The second game was a marathon that lasted 5:11 with a rain delay of 1:47 in the middle of the third inning. It was the rain delay that made this really the story of two separate games.
 
Baylor came out red hot with their starter earning six strikeouts in the first three innings. The Bears got on the board first in the second inning with a deep single to left center scoring two runs.
Baylor looked primed to run all over NM State, but then the rain set in in the middle of the third inning, with the officials calling a delay until the weather passed. Almost two hours later, the game resumed with the bottom of the third.
 
NM State starting pitcher Matthew McHugh stayed in the game after the delay and got two quick strikeouts and popup to short of his own to the end the home half.
 
It was the Aggies who came out of the delay firing. Daniel Johnson single on a hard hit ball to second baseman. He then stole second and advanced to third during the next at-bat. Dan Hetzel walked on a full count, putting runners at the corners. Hetzel then stole second. A 2 RBI double by Joseph Koerper tied the game, with Johnson and Hetzel scoring.
 
The Aggies got three more runs in the fifth. The runs back-to-back-to-back base hits by L.J. Hatch, scoring Jaron Balman, Trey Stine, whose double down the left field line scored Hatch, and Daniel Johnson, whose single through the left side scored Stine. With all that said, the score set at 5-2 at  the seventh inning stretch.
 
Baylor able to tie the game at five in the bottom of the seventh, scoring three runs. The first run came on a RBI single to left, scoring the runner from the run from third. The second run came from a wild pitch. The third run was scored on a RBI single to left.
 
The Aggies quickly broke the tie in the top of the eighth with Hetzel, Botello walk and getting a base hit to start the inning. Joseph Koerper's two-run single up the middle put NM State up to stay.
 
NM State would get two more runs in the ninth and win 9-5.
 
The Aggies will face off against San Diego tomorrow at 12 p.m. MT.