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It was another difficult baseball season for New Mexico State.
The Aggies finished with a losing record for the sixth consecutive season, going 20-34 and 9-21 in Conference USA play in 2026. They lost 10 of their final 11 games and finished 11th in CUSA, failing to qualify for the conference tournament.
There were some positives. NM State earned two ranked wins against UTSA and Arizona State, both ranked No. 25 at the time the Aggies played them, and went 3-1 against rival New Mexico. NM State also had one of CUSA's best offenses and finished second in its conference with a .295 team batting average.
But overall, it was yet another underwhelming season on the diamond for the Aggies.
MORE AGGIES SPORTS: From Las Cruces High to New Mexico State, Steve Solorzano's dream is now a reality
MORE AGGIES SPORTS: New Mexico State baseball ends 2026 season against FIU in 51-run bonanza
Once again, the Aggies struggled to pitch well.
NM State's team ERA was a CUSA-worst 8.43. The Aggies also allowed the most runs (488) and the highest opposing batting average (.305) among CUSA teams, and ranked second-to-last in home runs allowed (77) and hits allowed (559).
Their 30 runs allowed in their season finale against FIU on May 16 summed up their season in a nutshell.
"It's a tough place to pitch, but it doesn't mean that you can't pitch well here," said NM State coach Jake Angier, who just finished his third season at the helm. "It's something that we need to really address in the offseason, and I think that we're in a position now, with some stuff resource-wise, that we can have a chance to address it."
Angier believes strike-throwing was a particular struggle point. The Aggies walked a CUSA-high 321 batters in 2026.
"I think the game here is going to be offensive just by nature of where you're at, so what you can't do is compound that by hit batters and walks," Angier said. "You've got to be able to really attack the zone on the mound and do a good job of that, so that you're not giving up a bunch of hits, as well as walking and hitting guys. It's too much to overcome offensively... We just need to get more experienced in here, and just some guys that have a track record of throwing strikes."
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NM State also couldn't field well.
The Aggies had CUSA's worst fielding percentage at .962 and committed a CUSA second-worst 71 errors. Boston Vest and Chris Daniels each committed 10 errors.
Angier thinks NM State's defense was as much of a problem as the pitching was.
"It was a rough year defensively, just as rough defensively as it was on the mound, to be honest, just from a ranking standpoint in conference," Angier said. "We need to get more athletic. We need to get better defensively in general, especially on the infield moving forward."
The gap between NM State and most of its CUSA peers was wide this season.
The Aggies lost their last six conference series and won only two, against Louisiana Tech and Delaware. NM State failed to win a CUSA series on the road and was just one of two teams in the conference that didn't win at least 10 games in CUSA play.
The Aggies are in a tough baseball league. One of the best mid-major conferences in 2026, CUSA has three teams (Missouri State, Jacksonville State, and Liberty) ranked in the top 35 of the RPI. Five teams in the conference have won at least 30 games.
"I think that we've made strides in the last few years. The problem is that the conference that we're in has made exponential strides," Angier said. "We're a better team than we were when I first got here... The problem is that this conference is a legit conference.
"There are some teams in our league that are Power Four teams, and they're spending money at a Power Four level. We've got to keep chipping away at it and get better at the things that I talked about, and I think that we're doing that. We're in the process of doing that right now."
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: What went wrong for NMSU baseball in 2026?
Continue reading...
The Aggies finished with a losing record for the sixth consecutive season, going 20-34 and 9-21 in Conference USA play in 2026. They lost 10 of their final 11 games and finished 11th in CUSA, failing to qualify for the conference tournament.
There were some positives. NM State earned two ranked wins against UTSA and Arizona State, both ranked No. 25 at the time the Aggies played them, and went 3-1 against rival New Mexico. NM State also had one of CUSA's best offenses and finished second in its conference with a .295 team batting average.
But overall, it was yet another underwhelming season on the diamond for the Aggies.
MORE AGGIES SPORTS: From Las Cruces High to New Mexico State, Steve Solorzano's dream is now a reality
MORE AGGIES SPORTS: New Mexico State baseball ends 2026 season against FIU in 51-run bonanza
Pitching
Once again, the Aggies struggled to pitch well.
NM State's team ERA was a CUSA-worst 8.43. The Aggies also allowed the most runs (488) and the highest opposing batting average (.305) among CUSA teams, and ranked second-to-last in home runs allowed (77) and hits allowed (559).
Their 30 runs allowed in their season finale against FIU on May 16 summed up their season in a nutshell.
"It's a tough place to pitch, but it doesn't mean that you can't pitch well here," said NM State coach Jake Angier, who just finished his third season at the helm. "It's something that we need to really address in the offseason, and I think that we're in a position now, with some stuff resource-wise, that we can have a chance to address it."
Angier believes strike-throwing was a particular struggle point. The Aggies walked a CUSA-high 321 batters in 2026.
"I think the game here is going to be offensive just by nature of where you're at, so what you can't do is compound that by hit batters and walks," Angier said. "You've got to be able to really attack the zone on the mound and do a good job of that, so that you're not giving up a bunch of hits, as well as walking and hitting guys. It's too much to overcome offensively... We just need to get more experienced in here, and just some guys that have a track record of throwing strikes."
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Defense
NM State also couldn't field well.
The Aggies had CUSA's worst fielding percentage at .962 and committed a CUSA second-worst 71 errors. Boston Vest and Chris Daniels each committed 10 errors.
Angier thinks NM State's defense was as much of a problem as the pitching was.
"It was a rough year defensively, just as rough defensively as it was on the mound, to be honest, just from a ranking standpoint in conference," Angier said. "We need to get more athletic. We need to get better defensively in general, especially on the infield moving forward."
Tough conference
The gap between NM State and most of its CUSA peers was wide this season.
The Aggies lost their last six conference series and won only two, against Louisiana Tech and Delaware. NM State failed to win a CUSA series on the road and was just one of two teams in the conference that didn't win at least 10 games in CUSA play.
The Aggies are in a tough baseball league. One of the best mid-major conferences in 2026, CUSA has three teams (Missouri State, Jacksonville State, and Liberty) ranked in the top 35 of the RPI. Five teams in the conference have won at least 30 games.
"I think that we've made strides in the last few years. The problem is that the conference that we're in has made exponential strides," Angier said. "We're a better team than we were when I first got here... The problem is that this conference is a legit conference.
"There are some teams in our league that are Power Four teams, and they're spending money at a Power Four level. We've got to keep chipping away at it and get better at the things that I talked about, and I think that we're doing that. We're in the process of doing that right now."
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: What went wrong for NMSU baseball in 2026?
Continue reading...
