NMSU advances to first WAC Tournament championship game since 2018 with stunner over Sacramento State

Stephen Wagner
Las Cruces Sun-News
New Mexico State pitcher Cade Swenson struck out a career-high six batters Friday, May 27, 2022, against Sacramento State.

Cade Swenson hadn't pitched more than two innings in nearly three months before Friday's game against Sacramento State.

The New Mexico State freshman had allowed at least two runs in all but one outing since April 9 and came into the Western Athletic Conference Tournament semifinal round with a 12.00 earned run average. He'd had three appearances this season in which he had been pulled without completing a full inning. Head coach Mike Kirby didn't hide that the Aggies were desperate for pitching heading into the penultimate round of the conference tournament they barely slid into.

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As Kirby said, the Aggies needed "someone to do something special." 

That someone just happened to be Swenson.

Swenson alleviated Kirby's concerns with shut-down pitching performance in No. 4 seed NMSU's 7-3 win over No. 2 seed Sacramento State to advance to the WAC Tournament championship game against either Grand Canyon or Abilene Christian Saturday at 7 p.m. MDT. It marks the first time the Aggies have advanced to the WAC Tournament championship game since 2018, when NMSU last won its conference tournament.

"He was awesome," Kirby said. "It helps when you have leadoff doubles and two-out doubles and you're manufacturing some runs... (Swenson's momentum) was pretty much rolling through the whole team. These guys are a confident bunch."

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Swenson's box score wasn't exceptionally glamorous to the random baseball fan — four hits, one run and six strikeouts in four innings of work — but it was his most complete performance since early March, when he allowed two runs in five innings. His six strikeouts were a career high. 

And it gave the Aggies room to breathe.

NMSU's offense rode the momentum from Swenson's one, two, three-out top half of the first to three runs in the bottom half of the inning. Tommy Tabak, batting .500 in the conference tournament heading into Friday's game, drove home a pair of runs with a two-out double after Edwin Martinez-Pagani picked up an RBI earlier in the inning to give NMSU a 3-0 lead. 

"Cade set the tone," Kirby said. "Coach (Keith) Zuniga called a fabulous game. The pitchers, we didn't walk anyone until the sixth or seventh inning."

Swenson punched out five more batters in the next three innings, only allowing one run on four hits. He didn't allow a runner to advance past second base outside of his one-run third inning.

Cal Villareal added a run in the bottom of the second off Gunner Antillon's sacrifice fly, then the Aggies added two more in the bottom of the fourth after Swenson's exit. Lyle Hibbits entered the fifth inning in relief with a 6-1 lead.

Hibbits gave up two total runs, one earned, in his two innings before being pulled after giving up three straight hits to start the top of the seventh inning. Hayden Johns pitched out of his inherited jam, and Brendon Rodriguez worked around a leadoff walk in the eighth. 

Alex Bustamante then shut the door in the top of the ninth to advance the Aggies to their first conference championship game under Kirby.

NMSU's hopes for further postseason play now rest entirely on tomorrow's winner-take-all championship game on ESPN+. The Aggies are unlikely to move past the top 220 in RPI regardless of tomorrow's results and were ranked as one of the bottom 60 teams in the country heading into the conference tournament, according to the NCAA's RPI rankings.

"The pressure is not on us. We're a four seed. We were supposed to go two and barbecue," Kirby said. "And we're still here, and we're eating at the barbecue, so let's go."

Stephen Wagner is a sports reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can found on Twitter at @stephenwag22 and reached at SWagner@lcsun-news.com.