The Sacramento State baseball team avoided being swept in its conference series against No. 25 New Mexico State when the Hornets rallied from five runs down to beat the Aggies 10-7 on Sunday.

Sac State lost the first two games of the series when the Aggies swept a Saturday doubleheader and outscored the Hornet 22-5. On Sunday, New Mexico State was looking to pick where they left off the day before and outscored Sac State 5-0 during the first four innings behind a pair of RBI doubles and junior first baseman Cody Edwards’ fifth home run of the season.

But the Hornets offense, which had been missing in Saturday’s two games reappeared during the middle innings of Sunday’s matchup.

Senior second baseman Andrew Ayers got the ball rolling with a one-out, two-run homerun in the bottom of the fifth inning. Ayers’ knock helped to stir up his other teammates, and the Hornets went on to add four runs in the sixth and an additional four in the seventh.

That made for 10 runs over the span of three innings after the Hornets had only managed a total of five during the first 22 innings of the series.

Sac State head coach Reggie Christiansen said he was very pleased with how his players responded to two tough losses against a talented New Mexico State team.

“There’s a reason they’re in the top 25,” Christiansen said, referring to the Aggies. “(Our guys) very easily could have shown up today and just gone through the motions. We found out what we’re made of today. That was a big win.”

A big reason Sac State was able to stay in the game after having fallen behind early was the strong relief performance of sophomore pitcher Tanner Mendonca. Mendonca, who missed his start on Saturday because he had been battling strep throat since Thursday, replaced junior starter Zach Morgan in the fourth and held the Aggies scoreless over the next 3 innings.

“That was a big time performance coming off being sick,” Ayers said. “He’s going to give it his all no matter how he’s feeling. We feel very confident when he’s on the mound.”

Mendonca held the Aggies’ hitters at bay just long enough for the Hornets to do their own damage with the bats. He eventually left the game in the eighth after allowing a pair of runs, but by then the Hornets had already built a five-run lead of their own.

Mendonca said he was just trying to help the team avoid being swept by keeping things within striking distance.

“We had a couple tough losses yesterday, but that was a good team win today,” Mendonca said. “To be able to come back from two losses like that took a lot of heart.”

David Somers can be reached at [email protected].