2025 Mountain West Credit Union 1 Championship
Wednesday-Saturday, May 21-24, 2025
Mesa, Ariz. - Sloan Park
Championship Central | Watch (NSN/Mountain West Network/MW App)

No. 1 Nevada (33-21) vs. No. 4 UNLV (31-22)/No. 5 San Diego State (19-37)
Thursday, May 22 - 1:05 p.m.
Watch | Listen | Live Stats

TV/Stream: NSN/Mountain West Network/MW App (PxP: John Ramey, Analyst: Jesse Kurtz)
Radio: KPLY 630 AM/The Varsity Network App (PxP: Zak Basch)

MESA, Ariz. - Nevada (33-21) begins play at the 2025 Credit Union 1 Mountain West Championship Thursday at 1:05 p.m. at Sloan Park in Mesa, Arizona.

The Wolf Pack, 2025 Mountain West Regular Season Champion and the top seed in the draw, advances straight into the four-team, double-elimination portion and will face the winner of Wednesday's 6:05 p.m. play-in game between No. 4 UNLV and No. 5 San Diego State.

Nevada will be seeking its sixth NCAA Regional bid (1994, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2021) at this week's event, as well as its first Mountain West Tournament title.

All contests at the championship will be broadcast on NSN in Northern Nevada and streamed online on the Mountain West Network and MW App with John Ramey and Jesse Kurtz on the call, and all Nevada games will be broadcast on the radio on KPLY 630 AM and The Varsity Network app with Zak Basch on the call.

ABOUT UNLV
UNLV (31-22) comes into this week's tournament as one of the hottest teams in the conference. The Rebels sat at 6-12 in conference play and on the outside looking in with 12 games to play, and went 10-2 over its final four series.

The Rebels are led at the plate by Dean Toigo, who posted team-bests in batting (.384), hits (83), homers (18), and RBIs (74). On the mound, the 1-2 punch of Carson Lane (6-3, 4.10 ERA, 85 strikeouts) and LJ Mercurius (4-3, 3.57, 58 strikeouts) paces UNLV.

ABOUT SAN DIEGO STATE
San Diego State (19-37) played its way into this week's tournament with a sweep of Washington State last weekend along with some help in other results.

The Aztecs are led at the plate by CJ Moran (.376, 15 doubles, 33 RBIs) and Nevan Noonan (.345, eight HR, 16 doubles, 45 RBIs), while on the mound reliever Aidan Russell is 2-1 with a 4.50 ERA and 21 strikeouts over 14 appearances.

NEVADA'S MOUNTAIN WEST TOURNAMENT HISTORY
This week marks Nevada's ninth Mountain West Championship appearance, and first since 2022, since joining the conference in 2013. Overall, out of 11 tournaments held since 2013, Nevada has only missed the event twice (2023-24). The 2020 tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the conference did not hold a tournament in 2021, electing to award its NCAA Tournament auto-bid to the regular-season champion.

Nevada is 10-16 overall at the event and is seeking its first title. The Wolf Pack has thrice been the No. 1 seed in the draw (2015, 2018, 2025), going 0-2 on each of the first two occasions.Nevada has reached the title game once, in 2016, advancing through the loser's bracket before falling to New Mexico in the first championship contest.

McKINLEY NAMED MOUNTAIN WEST COACH OF THE YEAR
In his third season at the helm, McKinley brought Nevada back to the top of the Mountain West in 2025. Trailing Fresno State by three games in the standings with nine remaining, McKinley guided the Pack to a sweep of the Bulldogs from May 2-4, and a regular season-ending 7-2 run to finish 19-11 in conference play and take the crown outright. McKinley's Mountain West honor marks the fourth time a Nevada head coach has taken home the award (Jay Johnson, 2015; T.J. Bruce, 2018 and 2021; McKinley, 2025).

The 2025 regular season title is the culmination of McKinley's methodical approach to restoring the luster of Nevada Baseball. After taking over a roster decimated by graduation and the transfer portal in July 2022, McKinley molded a roster to fit his culture and style over the past three seasons, finding the core to carry the Wolf Pack to this season's title. After going 10-20 in his first Mountain West season in 2023, McKinley's Wolf Pack improved to 16-14 in 2024 before capturing the outright regular season title at 19-11 this season. Overall, Nevada's 33 wins in 2025 marks its first 30-win season since 2019 (30-26), and most wins since going 37-24 in 2016.

YAMAGUCHI CRUISES TO MOUNTAIN WEST'S TOP FRESHMAN HONOR
Sean Yamaguchi became the third Nevada rookie to take home the Mountain West Freshman of the Year award when he was recognized Tuesday, joining Cal Stevenson (2015) and Joshua Zamora (2018).

Yamaguchi not only captured Mountain West Freshman of the Week honors a conference-best four times in 2025, his numbers ranked among the conference's best regardless of class. Over the Mountain West season (All-Mountain West honors are judged based solely on conference play), Yamaguchi hit 10 homers, tying for third overall along with matching the conference's 20-year-old freshman record set by New Mexico's Jordan Pacheco in 2005. Yamaguchi also ranked sixth in RBIs (33) and eighth in total bases (77) while batting .330 with eight doubles.

Some of Yamaguchi's hottest stretches came during conference play. He put together a nine-game hitting streak from April 6-22 over which he batted .457 with three homers, nine RBIs, and 16 runs scored, then bettered that over an eight-game streak where he hit four homers, drove in 12 runs, scored 12 more, and batted .471.