FRESNO, Calif. — The New Mexico Lobos, one out and one shot away from a Mountain West Conference baseball win, gave up a two-out, two-RBI, ninth-inning single and fell 9-8 to the Fresno State Bulldogs on Saturday .
The Lobos are 11-7 on the season, 2-3 in conference play.
Fresno State has won the first two games of a three-game series that will conclude at 2:05 p.m. Sunday.
New Mexico jumped forward with a four-run second inning, all four runs supplied by Devon Dixon’s Grand Slam.
Fresno State tied it on 7 with three carries in the sixth, but UNM went back to Dylen Ditzenberger’s RBI single in the seventh.
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Then, at the end of the ninth, Lobos right-hander Wil Bannister (0-3) knocked out the first two batsmen he faced. But a single, a hit batsman and a walk filled the bases, and Tommy Hopfe’s single to left won it for the Bulldogs.
The Lobos had 10 hits, two each by Dixon and Kyle Smith.
… In St. George, Utah, the New Mexico State Aggies topped the WAC column for the first time on Saturday with a 6-2 win over Utah Tech.
With a 3-2 lead, the Aggies (2-14, 1-4) batted for three runs at the top of ninth. Christian Perez doubled, finished third with Edwin Martinez-Paganis singles and then scored with a beam.
Martinez-Pagani finished third on a wild pitch and then hit Keith Jones II’s single down the left. Nolan Funke doubled down the middle and scored for Jones.
BASKETBALL: In Lexington, Kentucky, New Mexico State had no players in double figures but had nine in the points column when it defeated East Tennessee State 57-53 in a Women’s Basketball Invitational semifinal.
The Aggies (18-16) take on Georgia Southern for the title on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. The game is available on the Varsity Network app.
Soufia Inoussa led the Aggies with nine points. Sylena Peterson had eight points and six rebounds.
In a back and forth, two free throws by Molly Kaiser gave NMSU a 48-46 lead with 3:08 remaining. The Aggies held the lead the rest of the way.
SOFTBALL: In Logan, Utah, New Mexico lost 8-0 to rivals Utah State of Mountain West in a weather-shortened five-inning game Saturday.
The Lobos (12-17, 0-2) managed just three hits from Aggie’s starter Tess Bumiller. The Lobos’ Ashley Archuleta tripled with an out in the fourth but was stranded.
Starter Taylor Snow (3-4) accepted the loss for UNM.
… In Orem, Utah on Saturday, New Mexico State hit six runs in the top of the seventh inning and defeated Utah Valley 7-4 in a Western Athletic Conference softball game.
It was the first WAC win of the season for the Aggies (12-11, 1-2).
GOLF: In Tucson, Arizona, Bastien Armat’s 54-hole score of 4-under-208 put the UNM men in ninth place after the final round at the Omni Tucson Invitational.
Armat tied for seventh place in singles.
The Lobos team of 6-under 858 was 18 strokes behind winner Arizona.
… Also in Tucson, the UNM women were in 10th place after the second round of the Mountain View Collegiate.
The tournament ends on Sunday with 18 holes.
Jenny Lertsadwattana is the Lobos’ leading singles player with a total of 36 holes from 5 under 139.
New Mexico’s team of 2-under-574 leaves them 29 shots behind leader Iowa State.
Meanwhile, the New Mexico State women finished 15th, 8 to 584. Kaylee Chen is the NMSU singles leader with a par of 144.
TENNIS: In Radford, Virginia, the New Mexico men defeated Radford 4-3, earning individual wins from Arda Azkara, Rafael Abdulsalam, Georgio Samaha and Alex Maggs.
The Lobos are 9-3 on the season.
… In Corpus Christi, Texas, the New Mexico State Men (2-11) lost 4-1 to Abilene Christian.
