Aggies Travel to Texas for Season-Opening Series at Abilene Christian

Thursday 02/25/2021 | By: NM State Athletics Media Relations

Last week's original 2021 opening series canceled due to positive COVID-19 tests

LEADOFF HITS
• Year two of the Mike Kirby coaching era is set to begin at 5:05 p.m. MT Friday afternoon in West Texas as the NM State baseball team opens up its 2021 season with a three-game set at Southland Conference adversary Abilene Christian.
• The Aggies have won their last three season openers and four of their last five. NM State's average margin of victory in its four season-opening wins over the last five years has been 12.5 runs.
• NM State has either won or split its season-opening series in each of the last five seasons. The last time the Aggies lost a season-opening set came in 2015 when they dropped both games against Illinois in Beaumont, Texas, at the Lamar Tournament.
• As the Aggies' head coach, Kirby is 11-1 (.917) in games played in the month of February.
• Very few teams in the nation are faced with the situation the Aggies find themselves in 2021 as NM State has the tough task of trying to replace the otherworldly plate production of 2020 Collegiate Baseball Newspaper National Player of the Year Nick Gonzales.
• Fortunately, NM State has its fair share of returners coming back into the fold. Leading the way in that area is junior outfielder Noah Haupt. The Clovis, Calif., product earned Preseason All-WAC honors earlier this month after hitting .405/.395/.667 through 12 games in 2020.
• Infielders Kevin Jimenez (.288/.425/.390 in 2020) and Zach Smits (.400/.478/.550 in 2020) are also back for the Aggies as is outfielder Zerek Saenz (.344/.429/.375 in 2020) and catcher Jason Bush (.283/.421/.522 in 2020).
• Haupt (14), Bush (12) and infielder Austin Duffy (15) were three of the five Aggies from last season who finished with double-digit RBI while Saenz racked up the second-highest hit total on the squad (22).
• The Aggies didn't lose a whole of members of their 2020 starting rotation. Senior right-hander Chris Jefferson and sophomore righty Chris Barraza are back in the crimson and white in 2021.
• Jefferson went 2-1 in the team's abbreviated 2020 campaign, posting a 2.05 ERA through 22 frames of action. His 17 strikeouts were the second-highest total on the team.
• Through 20 1/3 innings of action in 2020, Barraza fanned 16 and surrendered just 22 hits to the opposition. He finished the shortened year with a 2-0 record and a 2.66 ERA.
• NM State and Abilene Christian will be duking it out on the diamond for the first time since 1993. In the only other series between the two clubs, NM State head coach Elliott Avent and the Aggies hosted ACU and swept the three-game series. Both of the first two games between the squads back in '93 were one-run affairs and in the third showdown the Aggies claimed a 14-1 win over the Wildcats. At the time of that series, ACU was an NCAA Division II institution competing in the Lone Star Conference.
• NM State leads the all-time series between the two teams 3-0 and will be facing off against the Wildcats in Abilene for the first time in program history this weekend. NM State is averaging 8.3 runs per game in the all-time series while the Wildcats average 3.3.

SCOUTING ABILENE CHRISTIAN | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Fresh off of a 6-5 midweek victory at SEC combatant Texas A&M, the Wildcats return to their home venue of Crutcher Scott field to host the Aggies for the first time in program history. In their opening series of 2021, ACU took two out of three games from Tarleton State.
• A trio of Wildcats have started the season with hot bats. Hunter Gieser tops the team's charts in batting average and slugging percentage four games into the season. The infielder is slashing .500/.563/.786 and has accounted for four of ACU's nine doubles.
• Grayson Tatrow (.412/.474/.765) has driven in a team-best five runs through the early stages of the Wildcats' season. He is the only player on the team who has a single, double, triple and a homer thus far in 2021.
• Infielder Bryson Hill has gotten off to a strong start at the dish, too. With a slash line of .400/.444/.667, Hill is one of two Wildcats who have homered and has a pair of multi-hit games to his credit this year.
• On the hill, the right-handed Minnesotan Spencer Chirpich gets the ball to begin the three-game set. His 1.93 ERA is the best among the Wildcats' starting rotation.
• Freshman southpaw Max Huffling has been making impressive inroads among the Wildcats' hurlers in his first season as a collegian. Through 5 2/3 frames of work, the Oklahoman possesses a 1.59 ERA and has racked up a team-high 10 strikeouts.
• In the 2021 Southland Conference preseason poll, Abilene Christian was chosen to finish 10th in the 13-team league. The Wildcats did not place a single player on the 2021 Preseason All-Southland Conference Baseball Teams.

COMING UP NEXT
• NM State's seven-game swing in the Lone Star State continues Tuesday evening in San Marcos, Texas. At 5:00 p.m. that evening, the Aggies cross paths with Sun Belt adversary Texas State from Bobcat Ballpark. ESPN+ and the ESPN app are scheduled to stream the game.

FOLLOW THE AGGIES
• For complete coverage of NM State baseball throughout the 2021 season and beyond, visit NMStateSports.com - the official home of Aggie athletics - and follow the Aggies on Facebook (NM State Baseball), Twitter (@NMStateBaseball) and Instagram (@NMStateBaseball).

++NM State++

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Last week's original 2021 opening series canceled due to positive COVID-19 tests

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