Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

,strong>LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The New Mexico State baseball team dropped its series opener versus UT-Arlington, 9-5, Friday night at Presley Askew Field. The loss drops the Aggies to 23-20 overall and 8-8 in WAC play. The Mavericks improve to 23-19 and 11-5 in the WAC.

NM State equaled Arlington with 10 hits and had only one error to the Maverick’s two. But while Arlington capitalized on its scoring chances with timely hits, the Aggies struggled with men on base, finishing with a total of nine runners left on base.

NM State’s 1-2 hitters in the lineup, right fielder Michael Medina and second baseman Kent Blackstone, both went 2-for-5 on the night. Medina also finished with two RBIs to lead the Aggies.

On the mound, Aggie right-hander Adam Mott suffered his fourth loss of the season after putting in over six innings of work. Mott, who struck out eight batters while only walking two, now stands at 5-4 for the season.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - A powerful first inning lifted the New Mexico State softball team to an 8-0 win over the Seattle U Redhawks in six innings on Friday evening, April 26. NM State improves to 33-15 this season and 14-2 in Western Athletic Conference play.

Sophomore Staci Rodriguez hit her 18th home run of the year, claiming the second spot in the Aggie record books for home runs in a single season. She finished the day going 3-for-3 with two singles and two RBI. The Aggies finished the day with nine hits and eight runs. Five Aggies walked their way on base and the NM State defense held five Seattle U runners on base.

Fellow sophomore Malena Padilla was 2-for-4 with an RBI double in the first and a two-RBI single in the bottom of the sixth. Padilla now has six doubles under her belt this season.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

DENVER, CO - New Mexico State men’s tennis players Daniel Fernandez, Luis Fernandez and Marc Westgate each collected All-Western Athletic Conference accolades for the 2013 spring season, the conference office announced Thursday.

Fernandez, a freshman from Aguascalientes, Mexico, was named WAC Freshman of the Year and first team All-WAC for his work on the court. Senior Luis Fernandez was named All-WAC second team for singles, while he and junior Marc Westgate were named second team all-conference for doubles play.
Fernandez finished the regular season 15-4 in singles overall and 4-0 in WAC play, winning each of his conference matches in straight sets. He was named WAC Player of the Week twice during the spring and helped the Aggies to a 13-8 season record, 3-2 in league play.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on a a weekend sweep of Louisiana Tech where your team pitched really well, played good defense and had pretty good offense.
Rocky Ward: It was one of those weekends where we played solid. We didn't play great, we played solid. Before the week I talked to my pitching staff a little bit about our walk totals. We're very high up in strikeouts nationally but also pretty high up in walks. It's one of those things that I haven't look at as much as I probably should have. I always look at the offensive side. We always lead the league in walks but we also lead the league in strikeouts. The more disciplined you are the more risk you add in the strikeout. As long as your walk totals are very high you can accept a little higher number of strikeouts because your on base percentage is more important than anything you do. So I talked to the pitchers about valuing the lack of walk over the desire for the strikeout. We do a pretty good job as a pitching staff of getting ahead in the count but then I think we spend a little too much time nibbling trying to entice the strikeout instead of going at guys and risking the ball getting put in play. On paper we've been a below average defensive club but over the last month we've been pretty good, maybe above average. Part of it is we have a pitching staff that walks a lot of people and strikes out a lot of people so not a lot of balls get put in play. It's hard to play behind those guys. You may go a lot of pitches without a ball getting put in play and it's the defense's responsibility to stay focused and hooked up. So they did a little better job in that area.

We're trying to challenge my pitching staff over the rest of the year to pitch at the national average WHIP. Forget about your ERA, forget about your strikeouts, give me the best walks and hits per innings pitched. I sent the guys a spreadsheet with the WHIP of every team in the league and their ERA and it's a direct relationship. The unique thing is that in every case the team with the lowest WHIP has the lowest ERA with the exception of us. We have the lowest WHIP in the league but we have the seventh best earned run average. Obviously we were doing some things right but if we're that good since we're such a good strikeout team, what could we do if we reduce the walks per game. We've kind of made a challenge to them and they did a nice job against LA Tech.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

DENVER, CO - The Western Athletic Conference announced on Monday, April 22 that junior Tanner Rust has been named the Western Athletic Conference hitter of the week for his play in five games during the week of April 15-21. This is his second hitter of the week honor this season and the third of his career.

Rust, a native of Lakeside, Calif. led the Aggies to a 4-1 record last week that included a four-game sweep over WAC foe Louisiana Tech on the road. Rust hit .632 (12-for-19). He tallied two home runs, three doubles, eight RBI, a triple and scored eight runs. He slugged 1.211 and had an on-base percentage of .652 on the week.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

RUSTON, LA - The New Mexico State baseball team (22-18) moved above .500 in Western Athletic Conference play after defeating Louisiana Tech 5-1 in game one of a doubleheader at J.C. Love Field in Ruston, La., Sunday, April 21. The Aggies are now 8-7 in WAC play.

NM State scored its five runs on nine hits as the Aggie defense played clean baseball without committing an error. The Bulldogs tallied one run on nine hits and left multiple runners on base. Starting pitcher Ryan Beck earned the win after he worked 6.0 innings and allowed just one run. He is now 5-3 on the year with 60 K’s on the year. Beck joins senior right-hander Adam Mott as the only Aggie pitchers with 60-plus strikeouts on the year.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

RUSTON, LA - The New Mexico State baseball team defeated Louisiana Tech 6-4, Saturday, April 20 at J.C. Love Field in Ruston, La. With the win Aggies move to 21-18 on the year and 7-7 in Western Athletic Conference play.

The Aggies jumped on top early scoring two runs in the top of the first inning with a sacrifice fly from junior Tanner Rust and an RBI double from senior Bobby Lecount. After a three-run second inning gave Louisiana Tech a 3-2 lead, senior Parker Hipp hammered a three-run home run in the top of the third. It was Hipp’s eighth homer of the year and RBIs No. 34, 35 and 36 in 2013.

Starting pitcher Casey Collins worked 4.1 innings while striking out two batters and allowing four runs, just one of them earned. Junior Christopher Bradley entered the game in the bottom of the fifth and got through 2.2 innings without giving up a run.   Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

- Finishing the weekend 2-1, the New Mexico state softball team defeated the Texas State Bobcats 3-2 in eight innings on Saturday afternoon, April 20, at Bobcat Stadium in San Marcos, Texas. NM State now sits on a 32-15 record with a 13-2 record in Western athletic Conference play.

A solo home run by Malena Padilla, a single by sophomore Staci Rodriguez and four singles in the top of the eighth inning made the difference for the Aggies to win their 12th conference game this season.

Senior Alex Newman worked the first five innings in the circle with two strikeouts and just two walks. She allowed one earned run before freshman Makayla McAdams came in to finish the game with three complete innings and three strikeouts. She worked for her final strikeout to end the extra-inning battle for the Aggies.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - New Mexico State men’s basketball head coach Marvin Menzies has signed DK Eldridge to a National Letter of Intent. The 6-2 guard joins the Aggies for the 2013-14 season.

Eldridge is 6-2 guard from Dallas, Texas, that has spent the last three seasons at New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs, N.M. With the Thunderbirds, he averaged 11.1 points per game this season en route to helping NMJC to a 27-7 overall record and their first regional crown and national tournament appearance since 1996.

"We welcome DK to the Aggie family," Menzies said. "DK brings needed athleticism and versatility to next year's backcourt. He's able to play multiple positions and having experience will only benefit an already talented team returning next year."  Continue Reading This Post >>