UNLV Baseball falls to the rivals up north 2-1

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Noah Beal pitching on the mound for UNLV during the Rebels second game against the Nevada Wolf Pack. Photo by Jordan Anders-McClain.

UNLV Baseball lost its first conference series to the rivals up north, the Nevada Wolf Pack, over the weekend in a three-game series but remain atop of conference standings.

Game One: April 8

The Hustlin’ Rebels would drop their first game in the series to the Wolf Pack in extra innings after Nevada made a comeback and tied it in the ninth.

The Wolf Pack would get on the board first in the opening inning after a sacrifice fly by Josh Zamora would score Paul Caulfield to put Nevada up 1-0.

The Rebels would take over the next two innings, scoring six unanswered points including Edarian WIlliams’ sixth home run of the season. 

UNLV would hold the 6-1 lead up until the Wolf Pack would begin making their comeback starting in the top of the sixth.

Patrick Caulfield hit a triple to right center, making it to home base with the help of Jacob Stinson grounding the ball out to shortstop. 

In the top of the seventh inning, Nevada’s Ryan Jackson grounded his own ball to shortstop to advance Anthony Flores to second base and to allow Matt Clayton to score, unearned. This would bring the Wolf Pack down 6-3. 

Diego Alarcon would score for the Rebels in the bottom of the seventh with a double from Henry Zeisler, making the final run of the night for UNLV. 

The Wolf Pack would score two more runs in the eighth, closing in on UNLV’s one run lead before tying the game in the ninth from an RBI by Flores. 

In the tenth inning, the Wolf Pack would score two more runs and with UNLV unable to get anything going offensively would drop the game 9-7 to Nevada. 

The first run for the Wolf Pack was scored by Dawson Martin after Flores hit a double to left center to also advance Tyler Bosetti to third base. 

Three batters later, Bosetti scored the last run of the night with Stinson walking to advance all three runners on the bases. 

Despite the loss, pitcher Josh Ibarra was named Rebel of The Game after throwing 6.1 innings, only giving up three runs on six hits and throwing nine strikeouts. 

Nick Rupp got his first loss of the season after pitching one inning of relief, giving up two runs on four hits. 

The Rebels would finish the game with seven runs on twelve hits and six RBI with a total of 42 at-bats.

Game Two: April 9

Game two of the three-game series kicked off at Earl E. Wilson stadium Saturday afternoon with a first pitch thrown by UNLV Executive Vice President and Provost, Dr. Chris Harvey. 

The Wolf Pack would jump to an early 4-0 lead in the second inning after back-to-back home runs by Dario Gomez and Landon Wallace.

UNLV would answer right back at its next at-back, scoring seven runs off of seven hits including Diego Alarcon’s sixth home run of the season that brought in Austin Kryszczuk and Rylan Charles. 

Each team would score in the third inning, with the Rebels still holding a three run lead. The top of the fourth would be the turning point in the game as Nevada would score four runs to take a 9-8 lead. 

UNLV would take back the lead in the fourth, scoring three runs on three hits and would add another run in the fifth to bring the lead to 12-9. 

During the top of the sixth, Nevada would tie the game scoring three runs off of four hits before reclaiming the lead in the seventh by scoring two more runs. 

Down 14-12, Kryszczuk would hit his fourth home run of the season to close the Wolf Pack’s lead to one run. 

The final two innings, Nevada would score eight unanswered runs to seal the series victory and hand UNLV a 22-13 game two loss.

Joshua Zamora hit a grand slam for the Wolf Pack, bringing Stinson, Jackson, Flores, and himself home for four runs total.

At the bottom of the ninth, it only took four batters for Nevada to secure the victory for the second night in a row. 

Josh Sharman was handed his first loss of the season after pitching three innings of relief, giving up five runs on six hits, and throwing three strikeouts. 

The Rebels would finish off the day with 13 runs on 17 hits and 12 RBI with eight strikeouts on 43 at-bats. 

Edarian Williams would go 4-for-5 at the plate with three RBI and two runs scored, earning him the Rebel of the Game despite the loss. 

Game Three: April 10 

With the series win already secured by the Wolf Pack, the top spot in the Mountain West conference standings was still up for grabs.

UNLV would win the final game in the bottom of the ninth on a walk-off run to remain two games ahead of Nevada in the conference standings. 

The Rebels would start the game strong in the opening innings after Henry “Hank” Zeisler would hit his first grand slam of the season and third grand slam for the Rebels.

The next two innings would go scoreless before the Wolf Pack would add their first two runs on the board to close in on UNLV’s lead 4-2. 

Kryszczuk would hit his fifth home run of the top of the sixth to add another run on the board before Nevada would make their comeback.

Through the eighth and ninth innings, the Wolf Pack would score six runs to take the lead 5-8.

In the bottom of the ninth, Kryszczuk would be walked and Alarcon would single to left center to get on base.

Joey Walls and Zeisler would strike out swinging back-to-back, which would bring up Williams. With two outs and two on base for a chance to tie the game, Williams would hit his seventh home run of the season to tie the game. 

Braden Murphy would bat next, popping it up for first base which would send the game into extra innings. 

Top of the tenth, the Wolf Pack were only able to get one hit as the Rebels defense came in clutch to get three easy outs. 

In the final frame, Santino Panaro, Charles, and Kryszczuk would each get one base, bringing up Alarcon to bat with one out. 

With the bases loaded, Alarcon would be walked, advaning Panaro to home and securing the game three victory for UNLV 9-8. 

UNLV now stands 12-3 in conference play with a 21-11 overall record. Kryszczuk would be named Rebel of The Game after going 3-for-4 at the plate and scoring three runs. 

Starting pitcher Noah Mattera would earn the win after pitching six innings, only allowing two runs on seven hits and throwing three strikeouts. 

Sam Simon would earn his first win of the season after pitching one innings of relief, only allowing one hit in the final frame.  

Up Next:

The Rebels will play their fifth game of a 13-game homestand against Dixie State in a single-game contest on Tuesday, April 12, first pitch is set for 6:05 p.m.

UNLV’s next conference series will be against San Jose State April 14-16 with two weekday games to give both teams the following Sunday off for Easter.

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