LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The New Mexico State baseball team opened its Western Athletic Conference play on Friday night against CSU Bakersfield on Presley Askew Field. A close game saw the Aggies not find the run production late as the team lost the first game of the series to the Roadrunners, 9-4.
 
To open the conference series, NM State (15-6, 0-1 WAC) sent Friday starter Brock Whittlesey to the mound to take on CSU Bakersfield (13-10, 1-0 WAC) ace Darius Vines. The Roadrunners were able to strike first in the top half of the first inning. With a runner on second and two outs, the opposition saw a single up the middle plate the first run of the ball game to put the Aggies behind 1-0 after one.
 
Then in the top of the second, CSUB expanded upon its lead over NM State. The scoring opened with an RBI double down the right field line before a single to the outfield scored the man from second and the Crimson & White trailed 3-0 heading to the next frame.
 
In the bottom of the second, the NM State offense responded. After Eric Mingus laid down a well-executed sacrifice bunt, the Aggies had runners on second and third with one out. Logan Bottrell then knocked an infield single to score the team's first run of the game and leave runners on the corners. The man from third was brought home on a Joey Ortiz sacrifice fly and NM State only trailed 3-2 heading to the third.
 
The Roadrunners left a runner stranded in the top half of the third and the Aggies looked to capitalize in the following frame, and the team did just that. A runner stood on second with one out when Tristan Peterson roped a double off the wall in left to bring in the game tying run. Then two batters later, Jason Bush knocked an RBI single up the middle to give the home team a 4-3 advantage.
 
This lead did not last long, however, when CSUB got back on the board in the fourth. A passed ball moved a runner to third who was then brought home on an infield groundout to tie the game up at four apiece into the fifth.
 
Going into the fifth, NM State was once again put in a hole. The Roadrunners had a two-out steal put a runner in scoring position before a single to right brought the man home to put the Aggie behind 5-4, a score that lasted into the seventh.
 
The deficit for the Crimson & White was expanded upon in the top of the seventh. A passed ball moved a Roadrunner to third and then an RBI single through the right side brought him home to put NM State down 6-4.
 
Looking to even it up, the Aggie bats just could not get any more runners across the plate and CSUB added three more insurance runs in the eighth that led to NM State's series opening loss, 9-4.
 
The New Mexico State baseball team looks to rebound against WAC foe CSU Bakersfield in game two of the three-game series on Saturday, March 23, at 2:05 p.m. MT at Presley Askew Field.