LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley baseball team fell to New Mexico State 17-8 on Friday at Presley Askew Field.

UTRGV (29-16, 14-5 WAC) and NM State (32-11, 14-5 WAC) are now tied for first place in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) standings, one game ahead of Sacramento State (13-6), which lost at Northern Colorado 8-6.

Four UTRGV players had multi-hit games, led by senior Anthony Gomez, who went 2-for-5 with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored. Sophomore Mercedes alum Oliver Closner IV went 2-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored. Freshman Vela alum Aaron Galvan went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. Junior Tyler Torres finished 2-for-5 with a double, an RBI and a run scored.

UTRGV led 5-0 early, scoring two in the second on a Closner single, two in the third on a Torres double and a Galvan single, and one in the fourth on a single by junior Conrado Diaz.

Senior Trevelle Hill (7-3) didn’t allow a hit over the first three innings. In the fourth, however, NM State had three hits, including an RBI-infield single by Tristan Peterson and a two-run double by Eric Mingus. Braden Williams capped the inning with an RBI-groundout that made the score 5-4.

NM State scored four more runs in the fifth on a Logan Ehnes single, an error and a two-run double by Kevin Jimenez to go up 8-5.

Nick Gonzales hit a two-run home run in the sixth to put NM State up 10-5. Gonzalez also doubled, tripled and beat out an infield-single to hit for the cycle.

Gomez answered with a two-run home run of his own in the seventh to knock out Brock Whittlesey (6-1) and make the score 10-7.

In the bottom of the inning, though, Logan Bottrell hit an RBI-double, Tristen Carranza hit an RBI-single, Ehnes hit an RBI-double, and Peterson hit a two-run double to put NM State up eight.

Grubbs hit an RBI-single in the top of the eighth to bring UTRGV within 15-8.

Then, in the bottom of the inning, Jimenez homered and Carranza hit a sacrifice fly to complete the scoring.

UTRGV and New Mexico State play the middle game of this series on Saturday at 3 pm.