Photo courtesy of Nevada Athletics on Twitter @NevadaBaseball. Joshua Zamora was named Mountain West Player of the week after a stunning weekend of baseball against GCU.

Nevada baseball traveled down to Phoenix, Ariz. to play GCU for its first games of the season. The men won the first two games but lost the third. 

On Feb. 18, the first game started with a cool 69 degree evening. Nevada was up to bat first with Tyler Bosetti hitting a single on a 3-2 count. Jacob Stinson also got a single and then Dario Gomez hit a line drive where he got out. GCU made double play and got Bosetti out at second then Joshua Zamora struck out. 

GCU had a strong bottom of the first. Two doubles led Elijah Buries to score and then a wild pitch let a runner advance to third. The last batter struck out, leaving the runner on third and up 1-0. Nevada saw two ground outs and a strikeout in their next at bat while GCU ran another athlete in to make the score 2-0. 

It wasn’t until the top of the fourth when Nevada scored off of a Zamora home run to left field. The seventh inning was also successful, running two batters in after a center field error. Patrick Caulfield and Landon Wallce, who both had singles, advanced on a wild pitch then scored off of the error making the score 3-2 Nevada. 

Nevada gained their final run in the eighth inning after an RBI double by Matt Clayton with Joshua Zamora scoring. Also in the eight inning was when GCU gained their final point after Jonny Weaver hit a single and one person already on base was able to score. 

Nevada won 4-3 and had an even bigger win the next day. 

No runs were scored in game two until the third enning on Saturday. With Gomez on base, Zamora hit his second home run of the weekend to left field. This RBI put Nevada up 2-0. The next inning had another RBI when Peter Mendazona doubled to left center and Dawson Martin scored. 

GCU finally got some runs in the fourth inning. Two players were on base and a single by Weaver got one in. Bases were loaded after a single and an unfortunate walk of the batter led to another run in making the score 3-2 Nevada.

Two runs were scored by Nevada in the fifth inning. Clayton and Martin both had RBI singles. The real show started in the seventh inning. Zamora hit his third home run of the weekend to left field. Martin had a double RBI, Mendazona a single RBI, Bosetti a double RBI and Stinson a single RBI. The bat to ball connection led Nevada to be up 10-2. 

Nevada did not stop there. Nine runs were scored in the eighth inning. With bases loaded, Martin was walked and one run came in. Mendazona and Bosettie both hit doubles and two runners scored on each hit. To end the inning, Clayton hit a grand slam to left field making the score 19-10.

Another home run in the ninth inning by Jaxon Woodhouse finalized the score at 20-2.

GCU did not like the outcome of that game and came back on Sunday afternoon to win 15-4.

Nevada started off the game with a home run by Gomez in the first, a Stinson home run in the third and an RBI double in third also. The score was 3-0, Nevada up. 

GCU got two runs in the bottom of the third inning, one in the fourth and two in the fifth. Nevada also got one run in the fifth with an RBI double by Gomez. GCU was up 5-4 going into the sixth inning. 

The seventh inning for GCU looked a lot similar to Nevada’s seventh inning in the previous game. The first run was scored after a throwing error on the pitcher, next a single RBI brought one run in and another run after a fly out. With bases loaded, Buries was hit by a pitch forcing a run in and another bases loaded for the next at bat. A single ran another player in and the inning finished with GCU up 11-4. 

Four more runs were scored in the eighth inning by GCU. Tayler Aguilar had a double RBI. Another walked batter with bases loaded happened, forcing a run in. Another run came in after a fly out and the final run was made off of a wild pitch.  

GCU won the game 15-4. 

Zamora was named Mountain West Player of the Week with a .667 batting average, three home runs and five RBI. He is third highest in the nation for on-base plus slugging percentage at 2.297 and slugging percentage at 1.583. 

The men will take on Arizona State on Feb. 22 at 5 p.m.