The Arizona Wildcats bombarded the New Mexico State Aggies 15-1 yesterday on 16 hits in their first game in three years as a ranked team.

The No. 22 Wildcats (10-2) also got a solid pitching performance out of senior Matt Hendren (4-0) who pitched eight scoreless innings giving up three hits, while striking out two and walking one.

"It felt good today, I was trying to throw strikes and make them hit the ball," Hendren said.

"I wanted to keep the ball down low, get a lot of ground balls, and pop them up some." Asked about his good control of the ball, Hendren said, "That is usually how I am, don't walk many, don't strike out too many."

Control was not only in the hands of the pitcher as the Arizona bats did what they wanted.

The Wildcats scored first and bashed the Aggies all day with contagious hitting.

In the bottom of the first, Jeff Gjerde knocked in John Powers for the first run of the game. Diego Rico then walked and scored on Brian Becker's fielder's choice.

In the fifth, Russ Brown walked, Powers doubled to score Brown and advanced to third on the right fielder's fielding error. Rico singled in Powers, and scored himself on Gjerde's double. Gjerde eventually scored on a shortstop throwing error and Arizona extended its lead to 6-0.

In the sixth, the real flood of runs began. Shortstop Erik Mattern tripled off the wall in center and designated hitter Kenny Corley singled in Mattern. Rico then doubled moving Corley to third. Gjerde then connected on a 2-1 fastball for his second homer of the year and his 18th RBI to give Arizona a 10-0 lead.

Arizona went on to score two more in the seventh inning and three in the eighth.

"They really played well today, the guys really swung the bat well," head coach Jerry Kindall said.

New Mexico State (3-5) got on the board in the ninth when Rochelle Riley scored on Wildcat reliever Ben White. Riley led the inning off with a single and moved to second on an error before scoring on Bobby Miller's one-out single.

Gjerde led the Wildcats at the plate going 3-for-5 with 5 RBI and 2 runs scored. Corley went 2-for-3 with 2 RBI and 2 runs of his own.

The short two-game series will conclude today when UA faces NMSU at 2:30 p.m.

"We must not overlook the Aggies, they are scrappy and they play hard," Kindall said. "They have some talent, our guy's had it on today and we have to have the same approach tomorrow."