LAS CRUCES – For the second season in a row, California Baptist University baseball is headed back to New Mexico for its third Western Athletic Conference series of the season at NM State.

Both teams will look to use this weekend to catapult them up the WAC West Division standings, as the Lancers and Aggies are both tied for fourth at 2-4 in league play through two conference series. CBU was swept by Grand Canyon at home in its opening week of WAC play and then bounced back with a 2-1 series victory at Utah Valley. NMSU has dropped consecutive 1-2 conference series at home versus Seattle U and on the road at Dixie State.

CBU made a mid-week stop at Texas Tech on Tuesday to take on the 11th-ranked Red Raiders. The Lancers jumped out to a 2-0 lead but could not hold off TTU in a 6-3 loss in Lubbock. California Baptist's Mitchel Simon, Ulises Caballero and Russell Stevenson hit three home runs in the game, but they unfortunately all came with the bases empty. Stevenson extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a two-hit performance, which Caballero and Michael Carpentier also had on Tuesday.
 
SERIES NOTES
This is the third-ever series between CBU and NM State, with all three meetings taking place in New Mexico. Nevertheless, the Lancers own a 6-1 advantage in the matchup. CBU swept last season's four-game series in Las Cruces, outscoring the Aggies 42-19 on the weekend. The Lancers also won the series opener and finale in 2019, with 5-3 and 9-4 wins. California Baptist's last win came on the final day of the regular and clinched the Lancers a share of the 2019 Western Athletic Conference title. CBU trailed NMSU 3-1 through seven innings but a seven-run eighth inning brought the Lancers all the way back to a 9-4 win.
 
WHERE CBU'S TRANSITION RANKS
The Lancers are the second team to win 40 games in one of its first two full transition seasons to Division I out of 49 teams that have made the move since 1998. Forty wins are a new single-season high for CBU in the D-I era after it won 35 games in 2019. The Lancers are 88-42 over their first three full years in Division I (2019, 2021-22), which is already tied for the ninth most wins by a program in its first three full D-I seasons.
 
Overall, CBU has gone 95-50 in Division I seasons. Its win total is 12 games off top-10 standing among first-year Division I teams since 1998, despite the 2020 season being canceled just 15 games in due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Lancers' 65.5 winning percentage ranks first among transitioning D1 programs, with Stony Brook (64.7, 112-61); Florida Gulf Coast (63.1, 139-81) and Dallas Baptist (61.2, 139-88) being the only teams to win at least 110 games at 60-percent clip or higher.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Opponent: NM State
Dates/Times: Friday, March 25 (5 p.m. PST); Saturday, March 26 (5 p.m. PST); Sunday, March 27 (11 a.m. PST)
Location: Las Cruces, N.M. (Presley Askew Field)
Video: WAC Digital Network: Game 1 | Game 3; ESPN+: Game 2
Live Stats: StatBroadcast: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
 
AGGIES AT A GLANCE 
NM State has a 10-8 overall record but has lost six of its last eight games, including WAC series versus Seattle U, Dixie State and a two-game set at Nebraska. Coach Mike Kirby is in his third season in Las Cruces and is the 11^th head coach in the program's history.
 
The Aggies have won four conference championships, with two in the regular season and two tournament titles. NMSU has also made four NCAA Tournament appearances, most recently in 2018.
 
NM State comes into this week batting .306, slugging .518 and maintaining a .396 on-base percentage. Seven of the Aggies' regular starters come in batting over .320: Gunner Antillon (.419), Ryan Grabosch (.354), Logan Gallina (.348), Kevin Jimenez (.343), Cal Villareal (.342), Brandon Dieter (.329) and Nolan Funke (.321). Gallina is the top power threat with a team-high five homers, .667 slugging percentage and 17 runs batted in, while Antillon (16) and Preston Godfrey (15) each have at least 15 RBI.
 
New Mexico State's pitching staff sports a 4.74 earned-run average, 1.48 WHIP and .265 batting average against. Ian Mejia leads the starting rotation with five starts, a 1.69 ERA, a 3-0 record and 32 innings pitched. Sammy Natera (5.51 ERA), Pablo Cortes (5.12) and Roris Maltrud (2.95) each have started three games. Maltrud has a great line with a 0.60 WHIP, .117 BAA and 20 strikeouts in 18.1 innings.
 
In the bullpen, Alex Bustamonte (2) and Brendon Rodriguez (1) each have saves and five relief appearances. Noah Estrella has a team-high eight appearances, while Cam Blazek and Cade Swenson have five appearances each, as well.