UNLV baseball roughs up UNM pitching again

NMSU holds on to beat Grand Canyon

UNLV’s bats remained red hot Saturday night at Santa Ana Star Field as the visiting Rebels rolled to a 12-4 baseball victory over the University of New Mexico.

After racking up 21 hits in Friday’s win, UNLV (18-9, 10-1 Mountain West) collected 16 more Saturday to secure a victory in the three-game series. Sunday’s finale begins at noon.

Joey Walls went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and homered for the second game in a row for the Rebels. UNLV led 4-0 after three innings and knocked out UNM starter Brett Russell (1-4) in a fiverun fourth.

Noah Beal (5-0) allowed three runs on five hits over six innings to get the pitching victory.

Kyle Landers went 2-for-4 with a triple, two runs scored and an RBI for the Lobos (12-15, 5-6), extending his hitting streak to 11 games. Chase Weissenborn also had two hits for UNM.

■ In Phoenix, Cal Villareal and Ryan Grabosch had two hits apiece and New Mexico State held on for a 3-1 win over Grand Canyon to even their series.

Grabosch doubled and scored on Villareal’s triple in the seventh inning to give NMSU (11-13, 3-8 WAC) a 2-1 lead. Pablo Cortes (2-2) worked six innings for the victory and Alex Bustamante pitched the final two innings for his third save.

Grand Canyon (17-11, 9-2) had the potential tying runs in scoring position in the bottom of the ninth before Elijah Buries lined into a game-ending double play.

The series finale is 1 p.m. Sunday (espn+ streaming).

SOFTBALL: In Las Cruces, New Mexico State and visiting Utah Valley battled in a marathon doubleheader with UVU taking the opener 18-14. Game two was still underway at press time.

In game one, Jillian Taylor doubled and hit one of four home runs by the Aggies (7-22, 1-6 WAC), but it wasn’t enough to overcome two big innings by the Wolverines. Utah Valley (12-14, 3-5) scored eight runs in the fourth and six more in the sixth.

TENNIS: The University of New Mexico men ralled to defeat visiting Air Force 4-1 in its Mountain West opener. The Lobos (7-9, 1-0) dropped the doubles point but clinched the match with four straight singles wins over the Falcons (12-7, 0-2). … UNM’s women (9-6, 0-3) dropped a 4-0 decision at Wyoming (8-8, 2-1). … In Seattle, New Mexico State’s women (5-13, 2-0 WAC) rallied for a 4-3 victory over Chicago State.