MESA, Ariz. – The third-seeded New Mexico State baseball team took on two-seeded Sacramento State in the Western Athletic Conference Championship game on Saturday night. In the longest game in WAC Tournament history the Aggies fell to the Hornets in 15 innings, 4-3.
 
NM State (39-20) opened with another dominant start on the mound, this time from right-hander Justin Dehn. Sacramento State (35-24) coming fresh off a semifinal game in the afternoon did not fare as well with the Aggies jumping on the board early.
 
In the top of the second, Nick Gonzales laced a double into right field that put runners on second and third with just one out for NM State. Senior leader Trey Stine then stepped to the dish and knocked a base hit to short that brought in the Aggies first run of the ballgame.
 
This opened the scoring that continued over the next two frames for the Crimson & White. A wild pitch in the third moved Marcus Still to third base and Logan Ehnes did his job at the plate floating a sacrifice fly out to centerfield to score the runner and put the Aggies ahead 2-0.
 
Then in the top of the fourth inning, NM State added to its lead. A Braden Williams single to the gap put runners on the corners with two outs in the frame. Then the Hornets starter, Ty Fox, had a wild pitch get through his catcher's legs to score Stine and give the Aggies a 3-0 advantage.
 
Dehn continued to cruise on the rubber having struck out the side twice in the first four innings and tying his season-high with 10 strikeouts in only five innings of work. At the end of his outing, the Woodland Hills, Calif. native had thrown 92 pitches and only five had been put in play by Sacramento State.
 
The Hornets erased the lead in the bottom of the sixth, a frame that saw the Aggies use three relievers. A single through the right side scored a run and an errant throw to third on the play allowed one more run to cross the plate. This was followed by a single up the middle that brought in Sacramento State's third run of the frame to tie the game up, 3-3.
 
Neither side could regain the lead over the next three innings to keep the score all knotted up. This sent the title game into extras, the first extra-inning game in the WAC Tournament since 2015 and only the 17^th all-time.
 
Sacramento State threatened with a potential game-ending run in the bottom of the 10^th. With a runner on first, the Hornets saw a shallow ball to the outfield get past an outstretched Marcus Still in center and the runner rounded third looking to end the game. Still fired the ball home and was cut off by Caleb Henderson who turned and fired into the glove of catcher Braden Williams who tagged out the runner to end the inning and keep the game alive.
 
Brock Whittlesey kept the Hornets off the scoresheet with 7.2 shutout innings of work. The hurler kept the Aggies in the game by holding Sacramento State scoreless into the fourteenth inning as he struck out nine batters and totaled 99 pitches in relief.
 
Then in the 15^th inning, a run was put up on the board. With a runner at second base, the Hornets sent a chopper through the infield that scored the man and gave Sacramento State the 4-3 walk-off win.
 
The 15-inning contest saw the Aggie pitching staff combine for 21 strikeouts to set a new single-game record in program history, surpassing the 20-strikeout game set against Houston Baptist back on May 1, 2009, and set a WAC Tournament single-game record.
 
New Mexico State and Sacramento State now face off in a winner takes all WAC Championship game at Hohokam Stadium on Sunday, May 27, at 2 p.m. MT.