Aggies Commence 2025 Season with Four-Game Homestand Versus St. Thomas

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) -- The Aggies are back. NM State will officially open its season this weekend as they play host to the St. Thomas Tommies beginning Friday night at Presley Askew Field. First pitch for opening day is scheduled to for 6 p.m. with Saturday beginning at 4 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. and Monday’s finale at 11 a.m.

All four games will be available to listen to via radio as Friday, Sunday and Monday will air on Magic 104.9 while Saturday will air on KRUX 91.5 FM. Play-by-play announcer Adam Young will have the call on Friday, Sunday and Monday while Jeff Matthews will be on the air for Saturday’s game. Friday’s opener will mark the fourth all-time meeting between the Aggies and Tommies.

SERIES INFO    

NM State (0-0, 0-0 CUSA) vs. St. Thomas (0-0, 0-0 Summit)

Presley Askew Field

Las Cruces, N.M.

Friday, February 14 – 6 p.m.

Tickets: Purchase Online or call 575-646-1420

Radio: Magic 104.9 FM

Stats: StatBroadcast

Promos: Opening Day, ASNMSU Student Giveaway & Rally Towel Giveaway (First 200 Fans)

Saturday, February 5 – 4 p.m.

Tickets: Purchase Online or call 575-646-1420

Radio: KRUX 91.5 FM

Stats: StatBroadcast

Promos: Opening Weekend

Sunday, February 16 – 2 p.m.

Tickets: Purchase Online or call 575-646-1420

Radio: Magic 104.9 FM

Stats: StatBroadcast

Promos: Bark in the Park

Monday, February 17 – 11 a.m.

Tickets: Purchase Online or call 575-646-1420

Radio: Magic 104.9 FM

Stats: StatBroadcast

Promos: Nusenda Center for Financial Capability Giveway

LAST TIME OUT              

• In 2024, NM State concluded the first season of the Jake Angier era with a 25-29 overall record, including finishing 10-14 in Conference USA action.

• The Aggies earned the No. 7 seed in the 2024 Super 1 Foods CUSA Baseball Championship where they fell to No. 2 Dallas Baptist in the first round before dropping a game to No. 3 WKU in an elimination game the following day.

• Last season, the Aggies saw three players  earn All-CUSA honors, including returner Steve Solorzano.

• With Solorzano, the Aggie return 13 players from the 2024 squad while adding 24 newcomers, including 14 pitchers.

YEAR TWO        

NM State begins its second season under Head Coach Jake Angier and will look 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.

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.

SAY HIS NAMIE               

With the heavy turnaround, the Aggies will look to third year Aggie Mitch Namie to be a leader. Namie is coming off a strong sophomore campaign in which he appeared in 50 of the Aggies’ 54 games and made 49 starts. 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).

BIG SPIKES TO FILL    

NM State will enter 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 its 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 with out 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.

Stat	Returning	Lost	Total	% Returning	% Lost
Starts	137	349	486	28.2%	71.8%
Runs	120	323	443	27.1%	72.9%
Hits	154	404	558	27.6%	72.4%
HR	11	68	79	13.9%	86.1%
RBI	90	323	413	21.8%	78.2%
SB	5	41	46	12.2%	87.8%
IP	124.0	329.1	453.1	27.4%	72.6%
SO	121	267	388	31.2%	68.8%

LOCAL PRODUCTS       

The 2025 NM State roster will feature four Aggies from the Land of Enchantment. This includes Kade Benavidez (Belen), Jaden Davis (Jemez Pueblo), Steve Solorzano (Las Cruces) and Hazen Wright (Carlsbad).

ONCE AN AGGIE...          

This season, Head Coach Jake Angier will be 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, begins 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 begins 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.

SHIFTING GEAR              

Last year, the Aggies only posted a winning record in their black uniforms as they finished with nine wins and seven losses when donning their black jerseys. This season, NM State will introduce a new white jersey along with a new white hat which will feature the vintage crimson “Block A” logo on the front panel to go along with a crimson bill.

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.

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 the 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.

CURRENT AGGIES AGAINST ST. THOMAS       

Two season ago marked the first-ever meeting between the Aggies and the Tommies as NM State concluded the 2023 season with a three-game home stand against St. Thomas. In the series, NM State would drop Thursday’s contest 12-9 and Saturday’s game 17-9, however, they would collect a 13-12 win in Friday’s tilt.

The 2023 series featured only two current Aggies as Mitch Namie and Kade Benavidez have both appeared in the lineup versus the Tommies. On the weekend, Mitch Namie finished 5-for-11 at the plate with four RBIs while starting at first base in all three games. Namie would also come around to score three of the Aggies’ 13 runs in Friday’s win. This included serving as the game-tying run in the bottom of the ninth thanks to a two-run home run off the bat of Christian Perez.

Meanwhile, Kade Benavidez also contributed to the win over the Tommies as he logged a season-high 2.2 innings on the mound and gave up just two hits and no earned runs.

SCOUTING THE TOMMIES       

NM State will open its season against a St. Thomas which is coming off a historic season as it posted a 22-24 overall record and a conference-best 16-10 record in league play to claim their first regular season Summit League title since joining the conference ahead of the 2022 season. However, due its reclassification status after making an unprecedented jump from D-III to D-I in 2020, the Tommies were ineligible for postseason play and will not be eligible until the 2025-26 seasons.

The Tommies are led by Head Coach Chris Olean who enters his 15th season at the helm of his alma mater. In total, Olean holds a 385-235-1 all-time record with the Tommies, including a 48-87 record at the D-I level.

St. Thomas returns seven of its eight All-Summit league selections from a season ago, including First Team All-Summit League honorees Max Moris (C) and Brigs Richartz (OF). The Tommies also return second team selections Evan Esch (LHP), Matthew Maulik (INF) and Tanner Recchio (INF) and honorable mention honorees Mikey Gottschalk (INF) and Joe Roder (INF).

This weekend, the Tommies rotation will include Evan Esch (Friday), Bryce Leedle (Saturday), Marcus Kruzan (Sunday) and Walker Retz (Monday).

UP NEXT

Following its four-game series with St. Thomas, NM State will return for a home series with Western Illinois. The Leathernecks will be in town on Friday, Feb. 21, to open a three-game weekend stretch. Friday’s game against Western Illinois is slated to begin at 6 p.m. MT. This will be the first-ever meeting between the Aggies and Leathernecks.

For complete coverage of NM State Baseball, visit NMStateSports.com - the official home of Aggie athletics – and follow us on Twitter (@NMStateBaseball), Instagram (@NMStateBaseball) and like us on Facebook (NMState Baseball).

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