Aggies romp in twin bill, take WAC title
LAS CRUCES — New Mexico State caught and passed Seattle University like the Redhawks were standing still, and in doing so won its fourth straight Western Athletic Conference softball title on Satuday.
The Aggies (26-21, 11-4) won a pair of five-inning knockouts at home, 9-1 and 12-2, and earned top seed for the WAC softball tournament, which they will host on May 9-12. Seattle (32-21, 10-5) began the day in the WAC lead but fell to third behind Utah Valley (19-24, 10-4) which had one league game cancelled and fell percentage points short of a share of the title.
Kelsey Horton homered twice and drove in seven runs in the nightcap for NMSU. She also homered in game one and is hitting .458 with 10 homers and 21 RBIs in WAC games. Nikki Butler also homered to back the pitching of Samaria Diaz and Analise De La Roca in the opener. Caity Szczesny was 3-for-3 with four RBIs in the nightcap.
■ In San Jose, Calif., San Jose State’s Madison Aurin hit a two-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh, sending visiting New Mexico to a 2-1 defeat.
The Lobos (12-34, 5-12 Mountain West) outhit the Spartans (29-15, 13-6) 7-3. Lobo Krissy Fortner (3-7) had an 81-pitch complete-game performance, allowing only three hits. UNM manufactured a run on three hits in the fourth inning to take the lead, with junior Monica Salas driving home Chelsea Johnson.
BASEBALL: In Phoenix, Logan Ehnes homered and drove in five runs, and Caleb Henderson homered in a 4-for-4 performance as New Mexico State (28-15, 12-5 WAC) won 13-1 over the host and league leading Lopes (24-19, 11-3) in a seveninning mercy-rule decision.
The Aggies had lost their previous four games to Grand Canyon, the last three by a combined 29-5. NMSU can go for the series win today at noon vs. the league leaders.
Aggie lefty Jonathan Groff (7-2) allowied just three hits while working all seven innings.
TRACK AND FIELD: In Sam Marcos, Texas, UNM’s Carlos Salcido ran 21.06 seconds his fastest windlegal time of the season, to win the men’s 200 meters Saturday at the Bobcat Classic.
Other UNM winners: Kristian Uldbjerg Hansen in the men’s 800, running a time of 1:50.7; Ada’ora Chigbo in the women’s high jump (5-7); Michelle Traynham registered a winning toss of 146-8 in the javelin; Brent Dionisio, the men’s high jump (season-best mark of 6-8 ¾) and Daniel Lam, the pole vault (season-best mark of 16-4 ¾).
UNM is back in action with distance runners at Stanford on Thursday and the rest of the team at Texas Tech this Saturday.
TENNIS: At Mesa, Ariz., the NMSU men (15-8) won 4-2 over Grand Canyon (16-7) in the WAC semifinals. NMSU plays MissouriKansas City today for the title.