Aztecs Edged at UNLV, 3-1, on Friday
LAS VEGAS – Playing its penultimate contest of the regular season, San Diego State dropped a 3-1 decision to UNLV on Friday in the second game of a weekend series at Earl E. Wilson Stadium.
One night after tying their season high with 15 runs, the Aztecs (33-21, 16-7 MW) managed just one tally on Tyce Peterson’s leadoff home run in the sixth.
SDSU, which already clinched the outright Mountain West regular-season title and the No. 1 seed at next week’s conference tournament, was out-hit 7-6 on Friday and stranded 11 baserunners, sustaining just its third loss in the last 19 games.
The Rebels (29-24, 10-13 MW) took the lead for good in the second when Nin Burns II led off with a home run off Aztec starter Bryce McKnight (5-1), who absorbed his first loss of the year.
SDSU had a chance to score in the third when Jake Jackson went the opposite way with a double down the right-field line and advanced on a wild pitch. However, UNLV starter Carson Lane avoided trouble with a strikeout of Zach Justice before inducing a groundout by Jabin Trosky to end the inning.
The Aztecs put two runners aboard in the fifth, when Justice roped a two-out double to left center and Trosky walked but came up empty after Max Farrell lined out to center.
The Rebels increased their advantage in the bottom of the inning on consecutive RBI doubles by Reggie Bussey and Marco Rosales after Jack Salmon drew a leadoff walk and Gavin Taylor was hit by a pitch, as both runners advanced on a Gunnar Myro’s groundout.
SDSU trimmed the margin in the sixth when Peterson led off with his 13th home run of the season, launching an 0-1 pitch from reliever Jase Evangelista over the center field fence.
The Aztecs quickly loaded the bases following Peterson’s blast, as Anthony Marnell IV singled and Zane Kelly reached on a fielding error in right, while Dawson Santana walked. However, Evangelista received a tailor-made double play to prevent further damage.
Evangelista allowed just one baserunner the rest of the way, as Adam Magpoc reached on an infield single and eventually advanced on a failed pickoff attempt but was left stranded after Evangelista struck out Kelly.
Evangelista finished with six strikeouts in four innings, yielding three hits and a walk to earn his fourth save of the season and preserve the win for Lane, who improved to 3-4 after tossing five scoreless frames, offsetting three hits and four walks with five strikeouts.
On the flip side, SDSU received another strong performance from Aidan Russell, who pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings after replacing McKnight, countering one hit and one walk with a pair of strikeouts.
Meanwhile, McKnight was saddled with the defeat after giving up three runs on six hits and two walks with a pair of strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings.
Justice led the Scarlet and Black with two doubles for the game, while Burns and Jonny Rodriguez collected two hits apiece for the host school.
San Diego State and UNLV will square off for the final time as Mountain West rivals on Saturday when the two squads lock horns in the rubber game of the weekend series at 12:05 p.m. PT. The Aztecs-Rebels showdown will air live on the Mountain West Network.