Glenn Connelly, Staff Photographer

A leadoff hitter isn’t supposed to hit like this.

He’s supposed to beat the pitcher with brains, not brawn. He must get on base by any means necessary to set the table for the heavy hitters.

He’s supposed to work the count until the pitcher gets tired of the head games and finally relents, serving up a pitch that can be slapped up the middle for a single.

It’s not in the job description to provide a power stroke to all fields, hitting every gap with line drives as if it were target practice.

On Sunday afternoon at Tony Gwynn Stadium, New Mexico’s Jordan Pacheco debunked the conventional role of the leadoff hitter, looking more fit for the cleanup spot rather than the top of the lineup.

The Lobos followed Pacheco’s 4-for-6, three-RBI performance – including the go-ahead single in the sixth inning – by blowing the game open late against San Diego State for a 15-7 win in the rubber game of the series.

“We have 10 games at home, get off to a 4-1 start, but now we’re 4-3, in the middle of the pack and that’s what sucks more than anything for me,” said head coach Tony Gwynn, whose squad fell to 10-26 overall, 4-3 in Mountain West Conference play. “No one else in the conference is going to play 10 home games, and we had a chance to get fat on those home games, but we just didn’t pitch well enough to take advantage of it.”

Early on, it looked like the game would settle into a pitchers’ duel between Aztec sophomore Mike Koons – who relieved senior starter Will Miller after just 1 1/3 innings – and New Mexico starter Jesse Perez. But, as the afternoon wore on and the wind picked up, the duel turned into a shoot-out – with shots flying all over the outfield.

The two teams combined for 14 runs in the game’s final three innings, with most of the big blows coming from the Lobos (20-11 , 3-3).

In the top of the eighth inning, New Mexico’s Ian Hollick followed a triple by Matt Foote with a double of his own, driving in Foote and extending the Lobos lead to 10-3. That blast was not the final one for New Mexico, but it was enough to put the game out of the Aztecs’ reach. SDSU could only cut the lead to 10-7 on a grand slam by freshman Nick Romero.

The Aztec pitchers left the ball up in the strike zone against the Lobos’ hitters, which allowed them to simply put the ball in the air and let the wind do the rest.

“Especially at our ballpark in the daytime, you can’t elevate the ball – you have to keep the ball down,” Gwynn said. “A lot of balls hit here at night are fly balls, but during the day, they’re not.”

The air raids could continue at 6 p.m. today as the Aztecs take a break from their MWC schedule to welcome Long Beach State to Tony Gwynn stadium.

The Dirtbags have struggled to a 15-15 (3-0 in Big West Conference play) record in 2006. The lumps have come early and often to a roster with 23 new players in a reloading effort for the usually great program.

While Long Beach doesn’t tote as many weapons as its past, it still has a few big guns including shortstop Evan Longoria (.353 batting average) and starters Jared Hughes (5-1, 2.97 ERA) and Andrew Carpenter (4-2, 3.23 ERA).