Air Force 11, Nevada 4
Friday, March 29, 2024
Reno, Nev. - Don Weir Field at Peccole Park

WP: Dylan Rogers (4-2)
LP: Theo Millas (2-1)

RENO, Nev. - Nevada will play another rubber game, as the Wolf Pack missed on its first chance to capture this weekend's series with Air Force, falling 11-4 to the Falcons, Friday.

The Pack's second opportunity will come in Saturday's finale, set for a 1:05 p.m. first pitch at Don Weir Field at Peccole Park.

Friday, Air Force (11-15, 7-4 MW) capitalized on Nevada miscues, scoring four unearned runs on four Wolf Pack errors, and breaking open a one-run game with five runs in the seventh inning.

With two away and a runner at third in the top of the seventh, Nevada looked to escape the frame and keep it a one-run contest at 3-2. But three-consecutive hit batters, the first by starter Theo Millas and the next two by reliever Dominic Desch, led to Air Force doubling its lead to 4-2 and loading the bases.

After Desch hit Christian Taylor to force in the first run, he was unable to make a play on Aerik Joe's Baltimore chop between the mound and third base, which plated Jay Thomason with the fifth run. Christian Jones then hit a shallow fly ball to center, which just escaped the glove of a sliding Bryce Matthews, and cleared the bases to put Air Force ahead, 8-2. The Falcons added two unearned runs off of a Nevada error in the eighth to go up 10-2.

Millas took his first loss in a Nevada uniform, falling to 2-1 after a 6.2-inning outing in which he was charged with five runs (four earned) on 11 hits.

Millas and Air Force starter Dylan Rogers each bounced back from two-run innings in the first. Sam Kulasingam reaching on an error at short by Justin Acal led to three-straight singles, the latter two RBI hits from Jake Greiving and Christian Taylor, to put two on the board for the Falcons. Nevada (12-12, 7-4 MW) evened it up with two away in its half of the first, as JR Freethy's walk kept the inning going and set up Taylor Holder's two-run homer to left-center.

Rogers, who improved to 4-2 with the win, allowed just a single over the next three innings, while Millas matched the zeroes until the top of the fifth. In that frame, Thomason stole second with two away, and came in with the go-ahead run on Grieving's line drive up the middle which short-hopped Acal.

Rogers would go 7.2 innings on the day, giving up four runs on six hits.