OREM, Utah – New Mexico State's Brock Whittlesey pitched a four-hit shutout en route to leading NM State to a 14-0 seven-inning victory over Utah Valley in the series opener on Thursday night at UCCU Ballpark.
With New Mexico State holding to a 6-0 advantage in the seventh, the Aggies managed to piece together an eight-run seventh-inning to go on to take the game by the 10-run rule.
The first-place Aggies moved to 27-9 and 10-3 in the WAC with the victory, while UVU drops to 8-29 overall and 5-8 with the setback.
Scoreless in the third, the Aggies took advantage of a dropped flyball to jump out to a 1-0 lead. Nick Gonzales drove home the run in the frame for NM State with a sacrifice fly to get the Aggies on the board.
New Mexico State then added two more in the fourth and three more in the fifth to extend its lead to 6-0. After an RBI hit from Logan Bottrell in the fourth, another UVU defensive miscue aided NMSU in the fifth as two of the three runs in the frame were unearned. Eric Mingus, Braden Williams and Kevin Jimenez all had RBIs in the fifth for the Aggies.
NM State then loaded the bases in the seventh and added eight more runs to put the game away up 14-0. The first two runs of the frame came in on bases loaded walks while Joey Ortiz came thru with a two-run double and Gonzales followed with an RBI single. Tristen Carranza delivered the big blow in the frame with a three-run homer down the rightfield line.
NM State's Whittlesey struck out five while allowing just four hits and no runs to earn his fifth victory of the season. UVU's
Jake Carr was tagged with the loss after surrendering three earned runs (six total) over 5.0 innings of work.
Trevor Howell,
Alexander Marco,
Mick Madsen and
Drew Sims recorded UVU's hits on the day. The senior Howell led the way with a double in the sixth. Six Aggies finished with a multi-hit outing and Carranza paced the team by going 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored.
The series will continue with game two on Friday. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at UCCU Ballpark. The weekend series will then conclude on Saturday at noon.
