SPOKANE, Wash. — Gonzaga baseball wasn’t able to come through on offense late in a 2-1 loss to New Mexico State at Patterson Baseball Complex and Coach Steve Hertz Field on Saturday night.
The Zags fell to 25-21 on the year, and New Mexico State improved to 34-17.
On offense, GU got a pair of hits from Branson Trube and Slade Heggen, and Austin Pinorini reached three times with a single and a pair of walks.
After the Aggies posted single runs in the first and second innings, GU starter Alek Jacob kept the potent NMSU offense off the board over the next five innings. He went 7.0 in total, giving up just the two runs on five hits with nine strikeouts and three walks. Reliever Justin Blatner entered to start the eighth and put up two more zeroes, going 2.0 innings and giving up just one hit with one strikeout and one walk.
Gonzaga got one run back in the bottom of the second with an RBI single from Jake Vieth, but went scoreless over the next seven innings.
GU threatened in the seventh with a leadoff double from Nick Brooks and a sacrifice bunt from Heggen to put a runner on third with one out. But, groundouts by Vieth and Isaac Barrera ended the threat. The Zags put two more runners on in the eighth, but weren’t able to push the tying run across.
The Zags and Aggies will play the finale of a three-game series on Sunday at 3 p.m. at Patterson Baseball Complex and Coach Steve Hertz Field. Live coverage will be available on GoZags.com.