SAN DIEGO - Backs against the wall and playing for its season, Nevada answered the bell Friday, defeating arch-rival UNLV, 7-3, in a Mountain West Championship elimination game Friday at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
Kade Morris went 8.2 innings for the win, and Josh Zamora went deep twice, his fourth two-homer game of the season, as the Pack (29-25) jumped the Rebels early and made it hold.
Nevada will play its second elimination game Saturday at 1:30 p.m., facing the loser of Friday night's winner's bracket game between San José State and Air Force.- A win in Saturday's opener would send the Pack to that evening's first championship game, at 6 p.m.
Morris improved to 7-5 on the season, keeping the Rebels (36-22) off the board for the first six innings, and allowing just three runs on eight hits before
Tyler Cochran came on to get the final out for his sixth save.
Morris faced the minimum into the fifth, and did not allow a UNLV baserunner past first base until Austin Kryszczuk's double to lead off the seventh. UNLV would halve the Pack lead with three runs in the frame, with Eric Bigani's two-out, two-run single making it 6-3.
But Morris would get Gianni Horvat to groundout to end the frame, then escaped a two-on, one-out situation in the eighth. With Rebels at first and second and just one out, Morris got Diego Alarcon swinging for the second out, and squashed the threat by flashing some leather, snagging Henry Zeisler's comebacker and tossing to first for the third out.
The Nevada lineup provided instant support for Morris Friday, scoring in each of the first four innings to get the Pack out to a quick 4-0 lead. Mountain West stolen base leader Pat Caulfield goaded UNLV starter Josh Ibarra into an errant pickoff attempt in the first, advancing to third, which allowed him to score the opening run on Zamora's RBI single.
The RBI single started a 3-for-4, three-RBI day at the plate for Zamora. He would hit a solo shot off the pole in left in the third, then provide insurance with a solo shot in the ninth, bringing his season home run total to 16.
Ibarra would last just 2.1 innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on six hits, and falling to 6-2 on the season.
Jacob Stinson, who had two hits on the day, set the table well Friday, scoring a pair of runs. First, Stinson came all the way around from first on
Tyler Bosetti's second-inning double, doubling the Pack lead to 2-0. In the fourth, Stinson made his way to second before scoring Nevada's fourth run on
Ryan Jackson's RBI single to right-center.
Those runs sandwiched
Dario Gomez's solo shot in the third inning, a laser beam that had the legs to clear the wall in left-center.
Caulfield would score the Pack's sixth run, making it 6-0 in the seventh, on
Matt Clayton's RBI groundout.
