Blue Raider baseball sweeps New Mexico State with 9-6 win on Sunday

Sunday, March 29

Murfreesboro, Tenn.

11 a.m.

Middle Tennessee

16-12, 5-4

New Mexico State

11-16, 3-6

New Mexico St.

Middle Tenn.

3/29/2026 2:58:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Willie Phaler, MTSU Athletic Communications

MURFREESBORO, Tenn.—Middle Tennessee (16-12, 5-4 CUSA) won yesterday against New Mexico State (11-16, 3-6 CUSA) with just one extra-base hit. With the wind blowing toward Floyd Stadium on Sunday morning, the Blue Raiders collected seven extra-base hits, including three home runs, in their 9-6 win over the Aggies to sweep the series.

Layne Akers wasted no time in picking up where he left off yesterday. The Blue Raider designated hitter jumped on a first-pitch fastball to hit his first career grand slam, his fifth hit and ninth RBI of the weekend to that point, to put Middle Tennessee up 4-0 after the first inning.

After New Mexico State got its' first run of the game in the fourth, Nathan Brewer hit his fifth home run of the year, a two-run shot over the wall in right to make it 6-1 Middle Tennessee. It was the sixth hit of the series for Brewer, who singled in his first at-bat. First baseman Dean O'Neill tripled in the fifth inning following a Tyler Minnick double to give him his team-high 30th RBI of the year and extend the lead to 7-1. In his next at-bat, O'Neill hit the third Middle Tennessee home run of the game, a two-run blast, to put Middle Tennessee up 9-3 in the eighth inning. O'Neill's home run was the team-best ninth of the year.

David Horn Jr. got the start for Middle Tennessee and struck out four in four innings, giving up just one earned run. Left-hander John Michael Pickens entered in the fifth inning and extended his scoreless streak to 10.2 total innings after 2.2 innings pitched this afternoon, striking out three. Bryant Beranek, who started Tuesday's midweek win over Alabama A&M, came on with runners on first and second with two outs in the seventh and got a groundout to end the inning. Landen Burch and Gavin King appeared at the end of the game for Middle Tennessee, with King getting the save after the Aggies had another big ninth inning.

O'Neill finished the day 2-for-4 with three total RBIs. Akers had three extra-base hits with four RBIs and Brewer had a multi-hit day with two RBIs. Akers and Brewer combined to go 13-for-23 with 12 RBIs, five extra-base hits and five runs scored in the series.

By the Numbers

4: Players tied for second on the team in home runs with five; Owen Nowak, Tyler Minnick, Cooper Clapp and Nathan Brewer.

10.2: Straight scoreless innings out of the bullpen by John Michael Pickens, stretched across the last five outings. New Mexico State ended the streak by scoring a run off Pickens in the seventh.

11: Doubles for Tyler Minnick leads the team.

39: Brett Rogers collected another hit to give him 39 on the year, tops in CUSA.

The Skipper Speaks (Jerry Meyers)

"I'm proud of our guys for winning the day," said Middle Tennessee State Head Coach Jerry Meyers. "We didn't use the word sweep at all going into it. The goal is to just try and win every single day and every individual play and try to get better in the small individual areas and finding some more depth. (Bryant) Beranek threw for the first time on the weekend and got some big outs. We did a great job offensively of continuing to tack on after they would score a run, too. They threw a lot of different pitchers and our guys did a good job of communicating what they saw at the plate."

Player Perspective (INF Dean O'Neill)

"I was honestly a bit upset after my first two at-bats," O'Neill said. "I'm really happy I was able to get back in there and put the bat on the ball. My body is in shambles, so when I slid into third it hurt at first but when I realized I was there it didn't hurt so much anymore. Hitting my second home run of the year on opening day felt good, so now I've been able to cruise. This is the most I've had in a season in my career, so I'm just trying to keep it going. It's a lot of fun just going out playing like your hair's on fire."

Player Perspective (DH Layne Akers)

"I was seeing the ball well today in batting practice and I had some confidence heading into my first at-bat," Akers said. "With the wind blowing out, I knew I just needed to put the ball in that direction, and fortunately I put a really good swing on it (to hit the grand slam). We try to be consistent as a team in what we do. On the scouting report, we saw (New Mexico State) threw 12 guys last weekend, so we knew what we were going to get and we just did a good job of being consistent with things."

Up next

Middle Tennessee will stay here at Reese Smith Jr. Field for a 4:00 matchup with Southern Indiana on Tuesday. Coverage will be provided by the Blue Raider Network.