New Mexico 6, Nevada 4 (12)
Friday, March 21, 2025
Reno, Nev. - Don Weir Field at Peccole Park

WP: Ty Cunningham (1-1)
LP: Caedon Kottinger (0-2)
SV: Diego Alvarez (1)

RENO, Nev. - Nevada made a late rally to come back from a four-run deficit, but could not finish it off, dropping Friday night's series opener to New Mexico, 6-4, in 12 innings.

Four Wolf Pack pitchers combined to rack up 22 strikeouts, the most since posting 20 against No. 2 Oregon State in 2019. The quartet also stranded 19 New Mexico baserunners, including Caedon Kottinger getting the Pack out of a bases-loaded, two-out situation in the 11th inning.

But Nevada (12-9, 1-3 MW) could not capitalize. Jacob Doyle's walk followed by a single from Jake Harvey out two on with one out in the bottom of the 11th, but Lobo reliever Ty Cunningham struck out Michael Ball, then got a grounder to short from Junhyuk Kwon. Kwon was initially called safe as first baseman Ethan Ott was ruled to have been pulled off the bag by the one-hop throw, but New Mexico challenged the call and the umpires overturned the call after a replay review.

New Mexico (12-9, 4-0 MW) came back with two in the top of the 12th. After Ott's double put runners at second and third with one out, Luke Mansy lined out to left, allowing Will Asby to tag and score from third. Ott, after getting to third on Josh McAlister's single, would come across on a wild pitch from Kottinger.

Diego Alvarez worked a scoreless ninth to pick up his first save. Cunningham evened his record at 1-1 with the relief win, allowing just one hit over 3.1 scoreless innings, while Kottinger fell to 0-2 with the loss.

Wolf Pack reliever Logan Saloman came on to start the third in relief of starter Peyton Fosher, and went on to strikeout a career-high nine over five innings.

Harvey, Billy Ham, and Sean Yamaguchi all had two hits apiece for the Wolf Pack. Ham drove in a run and Jackson Waller did damage with an RBI double in Nevada's four-run eighth, which tied it up at 4-4. The Wolf Pack had a chance to bring the go-ahead run across when Yamaguchi tripled with two out, but Cunningham made a key hustle play when he grabbed Doyle's bunt and flipped home in time to get Yamaguchi at the plate.

Andrew Neil homered and went 3-for-4 with three RBIs to lead New Mexico.

Nevada will aim to even the series Saturday at 2:05 p.m.