The Nevada Wolf Pack baseball team returned to its winning ways as it returned to conference play this past week. Despite its previous six-game losing streak, the Wolf Pack did not slide in Mountain West Conference standings and its wins against Fresno State extended their lead atop the conference.

This last weekend, the Wolf Pack swept the Fresno State Bulldogs in a high-scoring three-game series. Below is a game-by-game recap of the games.

vs. Fresno State (May 4, 2018)

After some rough outings in his previous starts, Nevada starting pitcher Mark Nowaczewski pitched a terrific game. He garnered a career-high 10 strikeouts and held the Bulldogs to only two runs on the night. In addition, this outing was his fifth complete game of the season.

Nevada was able to get on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning as Cole Krzmarzick drove home two runs as he homered to left-center field. With the score tied in the seventh inning, Grant Fennell smacked an RBI single to take the lead.

Nowaczewski didn’t allow this lead to slip away as he only gave up one hit in the subsequent innings en route to a 4-2 Nevada victory.

vs. Fresno State (May 5, 2018)

The Wolf Pack found themselves down eight runs after it allowed five runs in the first inning and four in the second inning. With a huge deficit in the early innings, Nevada found itself playing catchup the whole game.

In the bottom of the third, the Wolf Pack had chipped away at the lead, as it scored five runs. Dillian Shrum hit an RBI single to score the first run. Later in the inning, Mike Echavia hit a grand slam to give the Wolf Pack some much-needed offense.

Down one run heading into the bottom of the ninth, the Wolf Pack’s Josh Zamora delivered a clutch RBI single that scored two runs to give the Wolf Pack the victory.

vs. Fresno State (May 6, 2018)

While the final score reflected the prior night’s, the roles were reversed this time around as the Bulldogs were playing catchup to the Wolf Pack. The Wolf Pack had a balanced attack on offense as it scored three runs apiece in the second and third inning. They also scored four runs in the fourth and two more insurance runs in the seventh.

Weston Hatten, Zamora, and Kaleb Foster all had two hits apiece in the balanced Wolf Pack attack. In three games, the Wolf Pack offense scored 28 total runs.

“I was just trying to get something to drive today,” Hatten said. “I haven’t been able to drive the ball like I’d like to lately. I was trying to concentrate on the middle of the plate and get some RBIs for the team.”

However, the Bulldogs would not go away as they scored two runs in the eighth inning to get within two runs. In the top of the ninth, Zach Presno homered to draw within a single run. In the following at-bat, Zach Ashford hit a double to get the tying run in scoring position. However, Wolf Pack pitcher Keone Cabinian was able to get a groundout to close out the victory.

“Winning’s contagious when you get rolling so it’s just nice to get back to conference play and extend the lead in the Mountain West,” Hatten said.