LAS CRUCES, N.M. – A strong outing from southpaw Jonathan Groff coupled with another offensive outburst gave the New Mexico State baseball team the series win over Towson on opening weekend with a 13-3 victory on Sunday at Presley Askew Field.
 
Just like the season-opener the Aggie (2-1) bats were awake and red-hot for the 10:05 a.m. first-pitch, touching up Towson (1-2) starter Alex Cuas for six of the eight runs they put up in the first inning. As a team, NM State drew five of its 10 total walks in the first inning.
 
After giving up a double to the second batter he faced in the game, Groff retired 13-straight Tigers before exiting the game in the sixth. The Castroville, Texas, native was efficient on the hill – mowing down six batters on 76 pitches in 5.1 innings of work while giving up just two hits and a walk.
 
First-year Aggie Alex Pinedo had a solid outing in relief of Groff, forcing a groundout and line-out to third to end the sixth without any harm. With runners on first and second in the top of the seventh, Matthew Munden came in for Pinedo and induced a groundball double play to end the threat.
 
The Tigers finally got on the board in the top half of the eighth inning when Richie Palacios yanked a 2-2 pitch over the fence in right center to make it 11-3 before NM State's Alvaro Castillo was able to end the inning. However, the Aggies were able to get two runs back in their half of the frame on back-to-back doubles from Trey Stine and Bruno Teramoto before Alex Reyes came in and closed the door on Towson in the ninth for the 13-3 victory, striking out 3-of-4 batters he faced.

Marcus Still raked for the Aggies at the plate, going 4-for-4 with two runs, two RBI and a walk. The bulk of the damage offensively came from the bottom of the line-up that combined to hit 9-for-11 with eight runs, five RBI and five walks.
 
QOUTABLE
"Well, we got two out of three just outstanding pitching performances. That was an absolute positive. Offensively, obviously we were able to put together some quality at-bats and score a bunch of runs in two of the three games, so overall we're off to a pretty good start. We'll get back to work on some things like team defense, stringing together better, more consistent quality at-bats and tighten up the bullpen a little bit, but all-in-all it was a pretty good first weekend." – Aggie skipper Brian Green
 
UP NEXT
The Aggies get their first real test of 2018 with their yearly meeting with Texas Tech on Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park this Tuesday for a midweek matinee game. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. (MT).