April 18, 2015
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Just as it did Friday night, Nevada broke open a close game with a big inning and went on to defeat San Diego State, 8-5, Saturday afternoon at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The win catapulted the Wolf Pack into first place in the Mountain West standings while the Aztecs fell a game behind the league leaders.
SDSU starting pitcher Mark Seyler struggled with his control over his four innings of work. Three walks over the first two frames did no damage, but the visitors would score three times in the third with the help of the free pass.
In that third frame, the Wolf Pack drew three consecutive base on balls with one out and all three would score. An RBI single by Kewby Meyer drove home two, and after a hit batter reloaded the bases, a sacrifice fly brought home the third run to make it 3-0.
Just as it did the previous night, San Diego State (27-13, 14-6 MW) worked itself back into the game, scoring a run in the second on Danny Sheehan's solo home run to left center and adding a second on a two-out RBI single by Andrew Brown in the fourth.
With its lead narrowed to 3-2, Nevada rallied for four runs in the top of the fifth to take control of the contest. Those runs came on a walk, sacrifice bunt, four singles and double, all before the second out of the inning.
Seyler (7-2) would depart the contest during that rally and would take the loss after tossing four innings and allowing five runs on just two hits. The telling stat in his line was the seven walks he surrendered, four of which would eventually score
The Wolf Pack (30-9, 15-5 MW) would add one more run to make it an 8-2 contest. That came on senior Jay Anderson's first career home run, a towering shot to right field in the top of the seventh.
The Aztecs put together a rally of their own in the bottom of that frame, scoring three times to cut Nevada's lead in half. After loading the bases on a single by Spencer Thornton and walks to Chase Calabuig and Steven Pallares, Ryan Muno was hit by pitch to bring home the first run of the inning.
Nevada then called on closer Adam Whitt with the bases loaded and two out, but he was greeted by Sheehan's single to right that brought home two more runs to make it 8-5.
Whitt then got the third out and tossed the final two innings of shutout ball to record his 13th save of the year. The win went to starter Jason Deitrich, who surrendered three runs on six hits over 6.1 innings with no walks and three strikeouts to improve to 5-2.
Sheehan and Thornton ended the afternoon with two hits apiece for the Aztecs. Sheehan recorded three RBI and a run scored while Thornton scored once.
Nevada and San Diego state will wrap up their weekend series with a contest on Sunday, April 19, set to begin at 1:00 p.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium.