COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Behind five home runs on Sunday afternoon the Nevada baseball team secured a series win over Air Force with a 7-4 victory.
The Wolf Pack improved to 12-16 overall and is now at 9-9 in Mountain West play with 13 conference games remaining. This series win marked the second consecutive conference road series victory for the Pack after it also took the series from league-leading San Diego State two weeks ago. Nevada's five home runs in Sunday's game are tied for the most in the Mountain West this season and are the most for the Wolf Pack since 2006 against Northern Illinois.
Nevada struck first in the ball game and scored five of its seven runs within the first three innings. On the very first pitch of the game
Tyler Bosetti put the Pack up 1-0 after launching his third home run of the season. The lead grew to 2-0 in the top of the second on another solo shot, this time from
Anthony Flores, also his third long ball of the season. In the third,
Marco Valenzuela led off the frame with a single to left and was later brought in to score on a home run from
Dario Gomez, his team-leading fifth of the season. Gomez's home run was the only one of the day for the Pack that was not a solo shot. Immediately after Gomez's long ball, it was
Dillan Shrum's turn as he went back-to-back for the Pack to give the team a 5-0 lead.
The Falcons (16-16, 8-10 MW) got on the board in the bottom half of the third thanks to a long ball of their own as Cole Blatchford homered to right field, scoring two runs and cutting the lead to 5-2. Both teams added one run each in their portion of the fifth inning and the game went scoreless for the next two innings, sending the contest into the eighth with Nevada ahead 6-3. The Pack's final run of the day came in the top of the eighth when
Joshua Zamora connected on Nevada's fifth home run of the game to give his team an added insurance run. The Falcons also got one more run across in the bottom of the ninth but it wasn't enough to overcome a four-run deficit heading into that final half inning.
On the mound for the Wolf Pack freshman
Cam Walty earned his seventh start of the season but did not qualify for the win after throwing only 4.1 innings. In his 4.1 innings of work he surrendered three earned runs on five hits and struck out five batters. Fellow true freshman
Kade Morris tallied the win to move his record to 3-1 on the year. Morris tossed 2.1 innings and only allowed one hit.
Nevada will return home to host San Diego State this weekend for three games with a doubleheader on Friday and a single game on Saturday.
