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Aggies, Oh Aggies!
BASEMaltrudToss2
Andrés Leighton
4
Northern Colorado UNC 4-15
7
Winner New Mexico State NMSU 9-7
Northern Colorado UNC
4-15
4
Final
7
New Mexico State NMSU
9-7
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Northern Colorado UNC 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 4 7 0
New Mexico State NMSU 0 0 3 0 0 1 3 0 X 7 9 0

W: Maltrud, Rorik (2-0) L: Ashton MANSUR (0-1) S: Dickson IV, Frank (1)

Game Recap: Baseball | | NM State Athletics Media Relations

Maltrud's Mound Mastery Helps Aggies Complete Sweep of Bears

Maltrud K's nine, Saenz goes 3-for-4 in NM State's fifth-straight victory

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Monday morning, Rorik Maltrud was just another reliever in the NM State bullpen.

By the time 2:45 p.m. rolled around Sunday afternoon, the right-hander had finished presenting an exceptionally strong case as to why he should be included in the Aggies' rotation moving forward.

The sophomore out of Austin, Texas, fired six innings of shutout baseball, Zerek Saenz continued his scorching hot stretch at the plate by going 3-for-4 and the Aggies finished up a four-game sweep of WAC adversary Northern Colorado with a 7-4 victory at Presley Askew Field.

Now in possession of the WAC's longest active winning streak (five games), NM State sits in second place in the league standings.

SCORING SUMMARY
B3 | Most of the offense the Aggies needed to back Maltrud's dominant start came in the third. Saenz and Brandon Dieter connected for consecutive ground-rule RBI doubles to give the hosts a 2-0 lead before Ethan Mann capped NM State's three-run frame with a two-out RBI single to left.
B6 | Connor Laux got in on the parade of triples which occurred all weekend at Presley Askew Field, driving an RBI three-bagger past a diving Northern Colorado left fielder. Though he was thrown out at the dish trying to stretch it into an inside-the-park home run, it did score Jason Bush to push NM State's lead to 4-0.
T7 | The only time the Bears could get anything going at the plate was after Maltrud had made his exit from the game. Northern Colorado broke up the Aggies' shutout bid when Sam Leach laced a one-out RBI double to right center off of NM State relief arm Sammy Natera.
B7 | Adding a trio of insurance runs that they just happened to need, the Aggies hit their eighth and final triple of the four-game series in the seventh. Tristan Stacy nestled his first triple of the season into the right field corner to start the frame and the hot-hitting Saenz brought him home with an RBI single. Kevin Jimenez provided the dagger from there, blasting a one-out, two-run homer to right-center off of a 1-2 offering from Northern Colorado reliever Iain Isdale. Jimenez's first long ball of the year was NM State's third hit of the frame and extended its lead to  7-1.
T8 | Northern Colorado made things interesting beginning in the eighth. Matt Burkart connected on a 1-2 offering from Natera and launched it well beyond the fence in left-center for his third homer of the series. That two-run shot cut the Aggies' lead to 7-3.
T9 | With two men on and nobody out, Lyle Hibbitts struck out two of the three batters he faced in the ninth but Ben McKay's RBI single pulled the Bears within three, 7-4, before Frank Dickson Jr., came on to finish the job. The southpaw came on and fanned Quinn Ayers for the game's final out, neutralizing the Bears' comeback bid in the process.

AT THE DISH
• Saenz continued to terrorize the Bears' pitching staff throughout Sunday's series finale, going 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored. In the nine-hole, Stacy went 2-for-3 while scoring a pair of runs while Jimenez drew a walk in addition to his 1-for-3, two-RBI afternoon.
• McKay picked up three of Northern Colorado's seven hits, finishing the day with a line of 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. No other Bear amassed more than one hit.
• Saenz batted .739 (17-for-23) through the Aggies' five-game week, driving in 10 runs while scoring 11 more in that same span. He currently leads the WAC with a batting average of .554.

ON THE HILL
• Maltrud mowed down Bears for six innings to move to 2-0 on the year. Needing just 68 pitches to work his way through six frames, Maltrud amassed nine strikeouts while giving just just two hit and walking one.
• Dickson Jr., got credit for the save - NM State's first of 2021.
• Ashton Mansur (0-1) took the loss for Northern Colorado after being charged for three runs on five hits and a pair of walks in five frames of work.

COMING UP NEXT
• With their longest home stand of the 2021 season in the books, the Aggies are set to embark on a 12-game road trip out west. NM State's lengthy road swing starts Friday in Bellevue, Wash., when it starts a four-game WAC series with Seattle U. First pitch from Bannerwood Park is set for 5 p.m.

++NM State++

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