THE BASICS:                       
Score: NM State 15 – MTSU 12
Records: NM State (14-18), (3-7) | MTSU (11-21), (3-7)
Location: Reese Smith Jr. Field
Win: Saul Soto (3-1) | Loss: Patrick Johnson (3-1)
 
MURFREESBORO, Tenn.  – NM State goes the distance in Tennessee beating Middle Tennessee 15-12 in eleven innings on April 12. Keith Jones II had a career night going five for seven with three RBIs.
 
The Aggies jump out to an early lead at the top of the first. With a pair of singles from Jones and Titus Dumitru the Aggies put themselves on first and third. Damone Hale hit a ground ball up the middle that scored Jones.
 
The Blue Raiders answered the Aggies one run in the bottom first by scoring four runs. Starting pitcher Josh Sharman gave up a leadoff single. The Blue Devis two-hole hitter hit a home run to left field to give Middle Tennessee two runs and the lead.
 
Sharman forced a groundout after giving up the two-run homer. With one out, MTSU got another single to put one runner on. The Blue Raiders managed to hit another two-run home run to go up by three over the Aggies.
 
Neither team was able to score the second as the Blue Raiders held on to a 4-1 lead. In the third the Blue Raiders lead off the inning with a triple. After a strike out to put up one out on the inning, MTSU's Jackson Galloway knocked a sacrifice fly to drive in the runner on third to extend Middle Tennessee's lead to four runs.
 
After getting one out in the fifth, Sharman was replaced by Hayden Lewis. With a runner on first Lewis would give up a double to put the Blue Raiders on second and third. Lewis would then strike out a Blue Raider for second out of the inning. The Blue Raiders then knocked a bases clearing double to make the score 7-1 in favor of Middle Tennessee.
 
In the top of the Sixth, Hale was walked. He then advanced to second on a stolen base, his fourth of the year, he then advanced to third on a Nick Gore fly out. Mitch Namie singled through the left side to score Hale and give the Aggies their second run of the game.
 
The Aggies stayed busy in the sixth as Logan Gallina doubled down the right field line to put runners on second and third. Kade Benavidez was called on to pinch hit for Gianni Horvat and he made the most of it as he then singled up the middle to score both Namie and Gallina.
 
Still in the sixth, Romeo Ballesteros was hit by a pitch to advance Benavidez to second. Jones then knocked a double off the center field wall. To score Ballesteros and Benavidez and give the Aggies six runs, just one run shy of tying the game.
 
The Blue Raiders led off the sixth with a double, MTSU would then bunt to advance the runner to third but with a throwing error the batter managed to reach safely. With a single to right field the two runners on base scored. The next Blue Devil at the plate then hit a two-run homer, to give Middle Tennessee eleven runs.
 
In the seventh inning Hale led the inning off with a double to right field. After a ground out form Gore, Hale advanced to third. Namie would ultimately ground out to second base but managed to score Hale.
 
In the eighth, Ballesteros was hit by another pitch to be the first runner on-base in the inning. Jones then singled to right field to put Ballesteros on third. With a wild pitch, Ballesteros managed to score, and Jones moved up to second, he wasn't their long as he managed to steal third. With Jones just 90 feet away Titus Dumitru was able to single up the middle to score Jones and give the Aggies nine runs. The Blue Raiders add a run in the eighth off a solo home run.
 
The Aggies need just three runs to keep the game going and they managed to do just that. Gore was walked to start the inning, Namie then advanced Gore to second on a sacrifice bunt. Preston Godfrey came into the game to pinch hit and did a job with a single through the left side.
 
With runners on first and third, Benavidez knocked a single to right field to score Gore and put Godfrey on third. Ballesteros then stepped up to the plate and singled to score Godfrey. With just one run needed to tie the game the Jones earned his fifth hit of the night to score Jadon Arakaki who pinch ran for Benavidez to send the Aggies into the bottom of the ninth.
 
Saul Soto came into the game for Lewis and made quick work of the Blue Raiders sitting down each of the three batters he faced to send the ball game into extra innings.
 
The Aggies were unable to score a run in the tenth leaving the door open for Middle Tennessee to win the game. However, they were not able to score as Soto kept dealing striking out two Blue Raiders and not allowing a single hit.
 
Namie earned a leadoff walk in the eleventh, to be the Aggies first runner on in extra innings this season. Gallina stepped up to the plate and delivered as he blasted a two-run homer over the right field wall to give the Aggies the lead. Edwin Martinez-Pagani wanted in on the action as he followed up Gallinas homer with one of his own to give the Aggies their 15th run and the win as MTSU was unable to match the three runs in the bottom of the 11th.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:

• Jones earned his first five hit game of the season and 11th multi-RBI game of the season extending his hit streak to six games and on base streak to six games.
• Benavidez earned his first multi-RBI and multi-hit game of the season.
• Namie extends his on-base streak to 16 games.
• Both Ballesteros and Dumitru got their eighth multi-hit game of the season.
• Gallina got his fourth multi-RBI game of the season with three and first multi-hit game of the season.
• With the win, this is the first time the Aggies won a game in extra innings since beating New Mexico on April 16, 2019.
• Lewis earned a new season high in innings pitched with 3.2.

 
UP NEXT:
The Aggies will face-off against the Blue Raiders in game two of the three game series April 13 at 2 p.m. MT.  For complete coverage of NM State Baseball, visit NMStateSports.com - the official home of Aggie athletics – and follow us on Twitter (@NMStateBaseball), Instagram (@NMStateBaseball) and like us on Facebook (NMState Baseball)


++NM State++