LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Following a series win at Liberty over the weekend, the Aggies will return to Greensboro, N.C., for their second meeting with the Spartans in the span of six days. First pitch for the Tuesday matchup is slated for 10 a.m. MT.
 
This will mark just the second meeting between the two programs with the Aggies leading the all-time series 1-0 after a 6-4 victory on Wednesday, March 19. The trip to Greensboro will cover nearly 1,600 miles as the crow flies - serving as the Aggies' second-longest road trip of the season, only behind a trip to Miami next month. With the Tuesday game, NM State will put an end to its second five-game road swing of the season before returning to Presley Askew Field where it will play its next four games.
 
SERIES INFO   
NM State (13-11, 2-1 CUSA) at UNC Greensboro (10-13, 0-0 SoCon)
UNCG Baseball Stadium
Greensboro, N.C.
 
Tuesday, March 24 – 10 a.m. MDT
Watch: ESPN+
Stats: StatBroadcast
 
LAST TIME OUT              
NM State submitted its first Conference USA series win of the year as they defeated Liberty on Saturday and Sunday to bounce back from a Friday loss in walk-off fashion.
 
The win on Saturday put an end to a six-game Liberty win streak and halted a nine-home home winning streak for the Flames. In the win, Joey Craig turned in a four-RBI performance to help the Aggies tally double-digit runs for the fifth time this season.
 
The Aggies then pulled off a come-from-behind victory on Sunday as they erased a three-run deficit that stood in the sixth inning. In Sunday's triumph, Steve Solorzano's talents were on full display as he tossed three scoreless innings to earn the win while also driving home the game-winning run in the 10th inning. On Sunday, the Aggies also recorded the program's first triple play since the 2014 campaign.
 
STELLAR STEVE             
Two-way player Steve Solorzano turned in one of the most impressive individual performances of the season in Sunday's win over Liberty. At the plate, the Las Cruces native turned in his ninth multi-hit game of the season as he finished with two hits and drove in the game-winning run in the 10th inning. Meanwhile, the right-hander who started at first base moved over to the mound where he ultimately earned the win after tossing three scoreless innings to close out the game.
 
Entering Tuesday, Solorzano paces the Aggies in batting average (.371), RBIs (21), slugging percentage (.663), walks (16) and on-base percentage (.500).
 
TRIPLE THREAT            
On Sunday, the Aggies accomplished something they hadn't done in over 10 years. A ground ball hit to Brandon Forrester ultimately turned into the program's first triple play since April 29, 2014, when the Aggies recorded a triple play on the road against Arizona State.
 
CRAIG NAMED CUSA HITTER OF THE WEEK                 
After a stellar weekend in which he played a pivotal role in the Aggies' series win on the road against Liberty, outfielder Joey Craig was named Conference USA Hitter of the Week. Over the three-game series, Craig batted .600 (6-10) and was tied for the team lead in RBIs with five, including a four-RBI performance on Saturday. He finished the weekend with a home run, one double and three walks to help support a .692 on-base percentage.
 
SLINGIN' SAUL                 
In the Aggies' win over Portland on Sunday, March 16, relief pitcher Saul Soto earned the win after tossing a career-high 5.0 innings to help lift the Aggies to victory. Soto returned to the mound on Sunday and struck out four Liberty batters to mark his fourth consecutive outing with at least three strikeouts. Thus far, Soto has a record of 3-0 and is tied with starter Jack Turner in wins.
 
This season, NM State is a perfect 7-0 in games that Soto appears in. On the year, Soto has pitched 22.0 innings and allowed just 18 hits and seven runs while tallying 21 strikeouts.
 
SCORING TRENDS         
Following Sunday's extra-inning win, the Aggies are now 11-2 when scoring six or more runs this season. Additionally, NM State is 6-2 in games where they tally the first run.
 
DOUBLE THE FUN        
Led by Namie and Steve Solorzano who have each tallied nine doubles this season, the Aggies have been one of the best teams in the country at hitting doubles. Currently, NM State ranks 31st among Division I teams and second in the conference in total doubles with 52.
 
BRING OUT THE BULLPEN      
In last Wednesday's victory over UNC Greensboro, the trio of relievers that came into the game for the Aggies combined to record 10 total strikeouts in seven innings of work. This marked the second time this season that the Aggie bullpen has accounted for 10 strikeouts in a single game as it also tallied exactly 10 Ks against Lamar on March 11.
 
Wednesday's outing was bolstered by an outing from Connor Wylde who logged 5.0 innings of work and notched a career-high seven strikeouts to earn the win.
 
TURN TWO       
With 24 games down, the Aggie infield has been one of the best teams in the nation at turning double plays. With another double play against Liberty over the weekend, NM State now has 20 double plays on the season which ranks 28th in the country.
 
As a conference, CUSA has also been exceptional at turning two as the Aggies rank just fourth among league teams with LA Tech's 24 double plays leading the way.
 
SAY HIS NAMIE                                 
Entering the 2024 campaign, returner Mitch Namie was slated to be one of the Aggies' key contributors once again after appearing in 50 of the Aggies' 54 games and making 49 starts during his sophomore season. The Mesa, Ariz., serves as the leading returner in batting average (.333), at-bats (183), runs (50), hits (61), doubles (13), triples (2), home runs (5), RBIs (35) and walks (31).
 
Through the Aggies' first 24 games, Namie's offensive power has been on full display as he has recorded a hit in all but two games this season, including posting a hit in each of the Aggies' first 15 games.
 
FRESHMAN ARMS         
The Aggies have leaned on their young arms this season and with a pair of appearances from Chris Daniels, all eight of the Aggies' freshmen pitchers have now appeared in at least one game this season.
 
In total, the Aggie freshmen, who make up eight of the team's 19 pitchers, have combined to throw 70.2 innings and have given up just 59 earned runs while combining for 65 strikeouts.
 
This has been bolstered by Sunday starter Matthew Yarc who has tossed 22.0 innings and has 15 strikeouts. Yarc is one of three freshmen pitchers with 10 or more strikeouts as both Dylan Weekly (14) and Carson Timmons (12) each have double-digit strikeouts this year.
 
AGGIES > AGGIES          
On Sunday, March 9, NM State claimed a 4-1 victory over No. 14 Texas A&M to secure the program's first win over an opponent ranked in the top 25 of the NCAA's primary ranking system since 2012 when they knocked off No. 5 Arizona.
 
The win was also the Aggies' first win over Texas A&M in nine tries and represented NM State's second win over a team in the SEC at the time of the contest. Interestingly, the Aggies' first-ever win over an SEC opponent also came on March 9, when they defeated Alabama 3-0 in 2018.
 
O'CONNOR NAMED CUSA PLAYER OF THE WEEK      
On Monday, Feb. 17, it was announced that standout second baseman Sheehan O'Connor earned Conference USA Hitter of the Week honors after an impressive trio of games to open the season.
 
Following a two-hit performance on Sunday, O'Connor ended the weekend with a .583 batting average, three home runs, eight RBIs and a pair of doubles to help guide the Aggies to a pair of wins and earn the season's first hitter of the week honor, which is announced every Monday.
 
YEAR TWO                          
NM State is amid its second season under Head Coach Jake Angier and looks to continue to make strides after increasing its win total by 11 games and posting the highest number of wins since 2019.
 
In year one under Angier, the Aggies landed three on the all-conference awards list as Keith Jones II earned first team All-CUSA honors, Titus Dumitru earned second team honors and Steve Solorzano secured all-freshman team honors.
 
Angier was previously at the University of Oregon where he operated as the pitching coach for the 2020-2023 seasons. Before Oregon, Angier was at Sacramento State from 2014-2019. Angier was named by Baseball America as one of the 50 names to watch in the 2023 coaching cycle. Currently, Angier is the second shortest-tenured head coach in the league as only Liberty's Bradley LeCroy, who is in his first season, has been in his current assignment for less time.
 
PRESEASON DOUBT   
On Jan. 30, Conference USA released is preseason poll and preseason award recipients and, notably, no Aggies were included on the preseason all-conference team while NM State landed in a tie for eighth place as a team on the 2025 CUSA Preseason Poll which is based on a vote of the league's 10 head coaches.
 
However, the Aggies did receive one first-place vote in the preseason poll as Head Coach Jake Angier has publicly backed his team and made known that he was the lone coach to not cast his first-place vote for preseason favorite Dallas Baptist.
 
TRENDING UP
After finishing No. 297 in RPI in 2023, the Aggies jumped to No. 138 at the conclusion of the 2024 season to mark the largest RPI increase in the nation.
 
LOCAL PRODUCTS       
The 2025 NM State roster features four Aggies from the Land of Enchantment. This includes Kade Benavidez (Belen), Jaden Davis (Jemez Pueblo), Steve Solorzano (Las Cruces) and Hazen Wright (Carlsbad).
 
WELCOME ABOARD    
This offseason, NM State added Assistant Coach Camden Duzenack to its staff. Following an impressive playing career which included six seasons in the farm system for the Arizona Diamondbacks, he will assist primarily with the infield for the Aggies.
 
In college, Duzenack spent four seasons with CUSA foe Dallas Baptist where he recorded a career batting average of .291 and was named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American as a freshman in 2014. He was also named MVC Defensive Player of the Year as a senior and garnered All-MVC honors three years in a row.
 
BIG SPIKES TO FILL    
NM State entered the 2025 season with nearly two-thirds of its 2024 roster no longer in the picture. This year, NM State brings back just 12 players while 22 individuals have departed.
 
With a new-look roster comes opportunity as the Aggies will be looking to replace nearly all of its offensive and pitching production. With the departures, the Aggies lost over 70% of their runs (72.9%), hits (72.4%), home runs (86.1%), RBIs (78.2%), stolen bases (87.8%) and innings pitched (72.6%). NM State will also be without Keith Jones II, Romeo Ballesteros and Nick Gore who were the only three Aggies last season to start more than 50 games - starting 53, 53 and 52, respectively.
 
ONCE AN AGGIE...          
This season, Head Coach Jake Angier is supported by a pair of former Aggies on his staff as both Assistant Coach David Bellamy and Director of Pitching Analytics Aaron Treloar each spent time during their collegiate playing days at NM State.
 
Bellamy, a two-year letter winner at NM State, is amid his second season on Angier's staff. As a player, he was a standout outfielder for both the 2017 and 2018 seasons. He batted .307 his senior year to help lead the Aggies to the Lubbock Regional before being named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District First-Team and Academic All-WAC First-Team. Bellamy now serves as the Aggies' hitting coach and is tasked with calling the offensive plays.
 
Meanwhile, Treloar is in his first season on staff after wrapping up his playing career just last season. Treloar ultimately spent his final two years with the Aggies and appeared in 35 games while totaling 42 strikeouts, including 26 in 2024.
 
EASTWARD EXPANSION           
This season, the Aggies will spend their fair share of time on the road as they are slated to play 27 games away from Presley Askew Field. Unlike American settlers, the Aggies will do most of their traveling to the east as their contests against Arizona will represent the only two times that the Aggies will travel west of Las Cruces.
 
During its season, NM State will rack up frequent flyer miles as seven of its 11 road trips will include games that require over 700 miles of travel. This includes three extra lengthy trips as its road trip to UNC Greensboro and Liberty (1,789 miles to UNCG), its trip to FIU (2,030 miles) and its trip to Kennesaw State (1,461 miles) all exceed 1,000 miles.
 
ON THE BASE PATHS 
This season, first year assistant, Camden Duzenack serves as the Aggies' first-base coach. Meanwhile, Dillon Leveille, who is in his second season on staff, is the Aggies' third-base coach.
 
UP NEXT             
Following the five-game road trip, NM State will return home for a home series against 17th-ranked Dallas Baptist. This will precede a midweek matchup against rival New Mexico on Tuesday. The conference series against DBU is slated to begin on Friday at 6 p.m. MDT.
 
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