EL PASO, Texas – The New Mexico State baseball team hosted their Battle of I-25 rival New Mexico at Southwest University Park in El Paso, Texas on Tuesday night. A game that featured 17 pitchers, nine for NM State and eight for UNM, saw the Aggies drop the first rivalry contest of the season 8-2.
 
After the tough loss, head coach Brian Green said, "You always want to get better as a coach. Where we are right now is exactly where we were last year. We're still trying to find our way in terms of toughness and competing consistently. We've had some really good performances this year but we've also had some poor performances. We've got to find a way to find consistency."
 
How it happened
Chris Kucko started on the mound for the Aggies as he threw his one inning, only surrendering one hit with one strikeout and no outs. After a quiet first inning for the Aggie bats as well, NM State went to the pen bringing in Dalton Shalberg in the second.
 
With one out in the top of the second, the Lobos doubled down the left field line to bring home the first run of the game. NM State then came to the plate looking to answer in the bottom half of the inning as Mason Fishback and Brent Sakurai got the team's first two hits of the game, but were left stranded on base.
 
The third featured scoreless play from both sides. Then, the visitors bats added to their lead over the following three innings. The top half of innings four, five and six saw the Lobos bring home seven runs as the Aggies deficit grew.
 
One point where the Aggies looked to cut into the opponents lead came in the bottom of the fifth. In the inning the Aggies saw three straight singles load the bases as Austin Botello came to the plate with two outs. Botello was then hit by a pitch to bring home El Paso native Brian Kiser for NM State's first run of the ballgame.
 
Heading to the seventh inning, NM State trailed 8-1 as reliever Keaton Graf held the opponent scoreless in the top half which NM State looked to capitalize on. With only one out in the seventh, Joey Ortiz singled to left which moved Marcus Still over to third base. Austin Botello then grounded to second, scoring Still before the inning was over.
 
The remaining two innings were quiet at the plate for both teams as neither could add to their total and NM State fell in the first Battle of I-25 of the season, 8-2.
 
Five Aggies finished the night with multiple hits, led by Mason Fishback and Joey Ortiz with three, followed by Brian Kiser, Brent Sakurai and Marcus Still adding two each.
 
After the loss, New Mexico State moves to 9-6 overall. The team will now travel to Salt Lake City, Utah as they will take on the Utah Utes in a three-game weekend series, March 10-12. The game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 live stream.