LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The New Mexico State baseball team faced off against the Bryant Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon at Presley Askew Field. The game ended a four-game weekend series as the Aggies split the match up with a decisive, 20-7, victory on day three.
 
NM State head coach Brian Green shared his thoughts on the strong team performance saying, "We did a great job today. We swung at good pitches and were very aggressive early in the count. We had a lot of quality at-bats today and any time you can put up 20 runs, it's a good feeling."
 
How it happened
 
The Aggies went down 2-0 early after giving up a solo home run in the first inning, followed by a RBI double with two outs in the second. After that,  the scoring was all Aggies for the next three innings.
 
NM State took advantage of inconsistent pitching and fielding errors by Bryant in the bottom of the second. After Brent Sakurai hit a single to left field to bring home Dan Hetzel, the flood gates began to open. Then with the bases loaded Joey Ortiz forced a bad throw by the shortstop to advance and score a run, tying the game at two.
 
With the bases still loaded and only one out in the inning, the Bulldogs made a pitching change to slow the Aggies momentum as the top of the order was due up. The call backfired as the first batter faced, Marcus Still, was hit by a pitch which drove in the leading run.
 
After allowing two more runs, on a fielder's choice and passed ball, Bryant went back to the bullpen in the bottom of the second as NM State led 5-2. Then the first batter, Dan Hetzel, blasted a three-run home run on a 3-1 count to give the Aggies an 8-2 lead as they head in to the third.
 
Over the next four innings, the Aggies only surrendered one run to the Bulldogs while driving in eight runs of their own including a five run fourth inning which began with a two-run shot by Mason Fishback. The solid play by NM State gave them a 16-3 lead with three innings remaining.
 
In the seventh inning, relief pitcher Chance Hroch came in for starter Marcel Renteria who ended the day with five strikeouts through six innings while only giving up three runs. Hroch's inning saw the freshman give up one run on a solo homer as the Aggies led 16-4.
 
While the Bulldogs knocked in another three runs in the eighth inning off of Matthew Perea, the Aggies were able to answer with four runs of their own over two innings after a sacrifice fly and fielder's choice in the seventh score two, followed by a two-run home run by Brent Sakurai in the eighth put the team ahead 20-7.
 
Senior Chris Butcher came in to close out the game as he gave up zero hits in the ninth to secure the Aggies dominant victory, 20-7, over the Bryant Bulldogs. This was the highest scoring game for the Aggies since they defeated the UNM Lobos 22-8 on May 5, 2015.
 
The win split the weekend series 2-2 with Bryant as NM State now sits at 2-2 on the year. The team's next game will pit them against the Texas Tech Red Raiders (3-0) on Tuesday, Feb. 21, at 2 p.m. MT in Lubbock, Texas.