Arizona baseball: Wildcats take down New Mexico State 11-8 behind Bobby Dalbec

Don't look now, but the Dalbec Express is starting to roll into town.

After a 4-for-8 weekend against Sacramento State and his first home run of the year, Bobby Dalbec tripled his season total as he blasted two more out, including one that cleared the batter's eye in center.

Those two home runs, which was the second multi-home run game of Dalbec's career, would power Arizona to an 11-8 victory over New Mexico State on Tuesday night. He would also earn the save, retiring three batters in the ninth.

The Wildcats started Austin Schnabel for the second-straight game, and the junior would throw three innings of shutout baseball to get the game going.

Dalbec's first home run came in the first, a three-run shot just over the left-center field wall to make the score 4-0 at the time. The Wildcats would tack on one more in the second with a Ryan Aguilar sac fly, and two more in the third with a Justin Behnke triple.

After Cody Moffett came in to retire one batter in the fourth, and Cody Deason retired four of the six he faced, Rio Gomez came in and gave the Aggies some life, giving up three-straight hits, resulting in three NMSU runs. Kevin Ginkel would be called upon to replace Gomez, and he would get out of the fifth without allowing any more damage.

Ginkel would retire the first four hitters he faced, but a single and a triple scored NMSU's fourth run of the night. Cameron Ming would get out of the trouble spot, inducing a soft liner to the shortstop.

With two long balls to his credit, Dalbec would walk in the seventh. He eventually scored his fourth run of the night on a Louis Boyd groundout, setting a new career mark for runs scored in a single game. A Ryan Aguilar two-run single would put the game out of reach, giving the Wildcats an 11-4 lead at the time.

Austin Rubick then would struggle on the mound, allowing the Aggies to get back in it after letting three-straight hitters reach base. Robby Medel would finish the 8th, but surrendered a home run in the ninth, forcing Jay Johnson to bring Dalbec on to get the save. He retired all three batters he faced to pick up his fifth save of the year.

A cool moment happened in the bottom of the eighth. Nogales native Marcel Renteria took the mound, and struck out the side, which was Matijevic, Dalbec and Salazar. Renteria got a huge cheer from the crowd next to the third base dugout there to see him play near his hometown.

Arizona begins Pac-12 play on Friday night at Washington. First pitch is scheduled for 5 PM PT in Seattle.