RENO, Nev. – In a pair of tight ball games on Saturday the Nevada baseball team came out victorious in both, winning game one over UNLV 6-5, and winning game two by the final of 10-8.
 
The Wolf Pack (17-16, 14-9 MW) kept its season-long win streak alive with the pair of victories, which now stands at seven games. This weekend's series against the Rebels (16-10, 11-9 MW) has huge implications on the Mountain West standings. With the two wins today by Nevada, the Wolf Pack is now in second place in the league standings, just half a game back of San Diego State.
 
Nevada continued its hot hitting ways with the long ball today too as the Wolf Pack combined for four home runs between the two games. Tyler Bosetti, who has hit six home runs in his last five games, launched two of the four, with Joshua Zamora and Dillan Shrum hitting the other two. Shrum led the Wolf Pack with five hits on the day, followed closely by four from Zamora, Dario Gomez and Landon Wallace.
 
GAME 1
How It Happened
 
Game one was a battle from start to finish. The Wolf Pack got on the board on the very first pitch of the bottom of the first after Tyler Bosetti led off with his team-leading eighth home run of the season. Nevada got another run across in the bottom half of the second after Landon Wallace drove in Matt Clayton from second on an RBI single.
 
Starting pitcher Alejandro Murillo gave up the first Rebels run in the top of the fourth, but otherwise cruised through the first four innings before running into some trouble in the fifth. A walk and a hit batter put two runners on for UNLV's Brendan Brooks, who connected on a three-run shot to left to give the Rebels their first lead of the game, 4-2.
 
UNLV tacked on one more run in the top of the sixth, before Nevada exploded for a critical four-run bottom half of the sixth. Dillan Shrum started the rally with a solo shot down the left field line, his fourth of the season, to bring the score to 5-3 in favor of UNLV. Two singles and a hit batter loaded the bases for the Pack with no outs. The Rebels nearly got out of the inning with limited damage, getting the next two outs, but Bosetti stepped in and roped a bases clearing double to right center that put Nevada back on top, 6-5.
 
On the mound reliever Shane Gustafson, who relieved Murillo in the fifth, tossed the rest of the game and threw scoreless frames in the seventh, eighth and ninth to seal the one-run victory for the Wolf Pack. Nerves ran high though in the top of the ninth as UNLV had the game-tying run 90 feet away, but Gustafson got the final batter to pop up to second base to end the game. Gustafson earned the win after tossing 4.1 innings, his third win of the season.
 
GAME 2
How It Happened
 
The second game of the day felt different than the first, at least for the first few innings. After falling behind 1-0 in the top of the first, the Wolf Pack quickly turned things around to dominate the first half of the game. Nevada got even in the bottom of the second on a sacrifice fly deep to center from Marco Valenzuela. From there, the Rebels plated two in the top of the third, but the Pack posted back-to-back three-run frames in the third and fourth to stake a 7-3 lead. In the third, after three straight hits to start the inning the Wolf Pack got a two RBI base knock from Landon Wallace and later got the third run of the inning home on a double from Anthony Flores.
 
The bottom of the fourth for Nevada started the way the top of the first in game one did, with a solo shot from Bosetti, giving him nine on the year. After the Bosetti long ball, Joshua Zamora and Dario Gomez hit back-to-back doubles with Gomez's two bagger driving in Zamora. The Pack's third run of the fourth came on a fielder's choice groundout hit by Wallace, which allowed Gomez to score from third with a great slide at the plate.
 
Meanwhile on the mound for the Wolf Pack, starter Jake Jackson cruised through the fourth, fifth and sixth allowing no runs in those frames. Nevada got three more runs before the seventh inning, scoring one in the fifth on a solo home run by Zamora, and an RBI double in the sixth from Brady Hormel, followed by an RBI single by Wallace that put the Pack up 10-3 after six innings.
 
Those were the final runs scored by the Wolf Pack in the game, but the Rebels made things interesting as they closed the gap in a hurry to 10-7 in the top of the seventh. UNLV went back-to-back on home runs in the seventh, one of which was a three-run shot to help the Rebels score four runs in the inning. Tyler Cochran entered the game on the mound for the Pack in the eighth and got a scoreless frame, sending the game into the ninth with Nevada ahead still 10-7. The Rebels didn't go away quietly in the ninth as they got within two runs after a solo home run by Jack-Thomas Wold. UNLV even got a runner to third with two outs, but Cochran got a line out to center field to end the game and seal the doubleheader sweep for Nevada.
 
UP NEXT
Nevada and UNLV will play the final game of the three-game series tomorrow with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. PT.
 
FOLLOW THE PACK
Stay up-to-date on all the happenings with the Nevada baseball program on social media via Twitter (@NevadaBaseball) and Instagram (@nevadawolfpackbaseball).