Box Score LOS ANGELES, CALIF. - The Nevada baseball team fell 8-3 at Loyola Marymount today despite RHP Mark Joukoff turning in the best start of the year for Wolf Pack pitchers.
The Wolf Pack plated its first run in the second inning when Carlos Escobar Jr. hit a line drive to left field scoring Brian Barnett from second base and cutting Loyola Marymount's lead to 2-1. The Lions later added a run in the in the bottom of the fourth on a single by Jonathan Johnson.
Nevada had the bases loaded in the top of the sixth, but could not score. First baseman Hugo Hernandez hit a ground ball up the middle with two outs and the bases loaded, but Lions RHP Martin Viramontes got just enough of his glove on the ball to slow it down enough for shortstop Shon Roe to field it and step on second base for the third out.
Joukoff cruised through his second outing of the season giving up three runs on eight hits in six innings of work. He retired the last six batters he faced before Matt Gardner came in for 1 2/3 innings. Gardner struck out two of the four hitters he faced in the seventh inning, but ran into trouble in the eighth.
After striking out the first two hitters of the eighth inning, an error by Gardner on a high pop up in the infield allowed one run to score in the bottom of the eighth stretching Loyola Marymount's lead to 4-1. Garrett Yrigoyen also committed an error on a ground ball that that allowed one more run to come around making the score 5-1 Loyola Marymount.
Mat Keplinger was then brought in to face lefty Matt Lowenstein, but gave up a triple into the right field corner that scored two runs before getting Jonathan Johnson to fly out to right field. Nevada went into the top of the ninth trailing 8-1, after giving up five unearned runs in the eighth.
The Pack added two runs in the ninth on a single by pinch hitter Cody Collins after Brian Barnett walked, Hugo Hernandez doubled, and Cody Collins doubled to score Barnett and Hernandez to start the frame. The rally was not enough as the Pack could not score again and lost by a final score of 8-3.
Nevada takes on San Francisco State next Tuesday Mar. 1 at 2:00 p.m. in its 2011 home opener.
