Photo by Rachel Jackson. Nevada baseball is now 4-1 in conference play.
It was beautiful weather for the Nevada baseball home opener on March 11 to the 13 against San Jose State University. With weather close to 60 degrees and light wind, college spring ball officially kicked off at the University of Nevada, Reno.
With 528 people at the Friday game, the men took down the Spartans 12-7.
SJSU started off strong in the first two innings. Two runs were scored in the first and one in the second. The first run was a home run by the lead off batter, Robert Hamchuk. The second was from an RBI and the third was scored when a batter was walked with bases loaded. Nevada got their first two runs in the second inning from an RBI home run by Lance Kelly.
The score was 3-2 going into the third. SJSU had another home run which sent in two runners on base. Nevada made a comeback in the fourth inning.
Down by four, second batter up, Landon Wallace, hit a home run to left center and one runner came in with him. Jacob Stinson hit a double and Ryan Jackson, on base after hitting a single, scored a run.
Nevada, only down by one now, kept the pack prowling. Pat Caulfield doubled down the right field line and ran two runners in to take the lead 7-6. A ground-out RBI by catcher, Matt Clayton, got Nevada its eighth run in.
In the fifth inning, Wallace and Kelly both hit singles and Wallace scored after Ryan Jackson’s single to left center field.
Two runs were scored in the sixth inning. Bases were loaded and Kelly was up to bat. The pitcher walked him and one run came in. Jackson was next up and he hit a fly out to center field, but Tyler Bosetti was able to get to home plate. SJSU scored one run off of a sacrifice fly also.
The last run in for Nevada was a home run to left center by Clayton. Nevada won 12-7.
Saturday’s game had double the crowd of Friday’s game with 1217 in attendance.
SJSU also started this game with a lead, getting two runs in the first inning.
Nevada put up five runs in the third inning to take the lead. Two batters were walked and Dario Gomez hit a single to load the bases. Clayton hit a double and two runners scored. Right after, Wallace hit a single and two more runs came in. The fifth run was an RBI single by Caulfield. Wallace hit another RBI single in the fourth inning to make the score 6-2.
The Spartans started the fifth inning with back-to-back home runs by Hamchuk and James Shimashita. Jacob Biesterfeld was replaced by Jake Gebb to pitch for Nevada. Another run came in after an RBI double to bring the Spartans within one of the Wolf Pack.
SJSU was on a roll with home runs. Zimmerman started off the sixth inning with a home run to tie the score 6-6. When SJSU went on defense, they subbed out their pitcher.
Nevada had another five-run comeback inning. Clayton had another RBI which put one more run on the board. Anthony Flores came up to bat with bases loaded. He hit a single down the right field line and two runners touched home plate. A throwing error led to the next run and an RBI double by Stinson brought the eleventh run in. Nevada led 11-6 going into the seventh inning.
SJSU made another pitching in the seventh inning and helped Nevada tremendously. A total of eight runs were scored. Two batters walked, and one was hit by a pitch. Flores faced his second base’s loaded batting experience of the game. He pursued this time with a double to right field and two runners came in. Another batter was hit by a pitch to make bases loaded again. Stinson and Joshua Zamora both walked and led to two more runs.
Another pitching change by SJSU did not bother the Wolf Pack. Gomez hit a triple with bases loaded to get the score to 18. Bosetti then had an RBI single to left field to make it 19-6.
With such a large lead, the Spartans were unable to make a comeback. They scored two in the top of the ninth to finalize the score at 19-8.
Photo by Rachel Jackson. In game three, Nevada had a total of 14 hits and 14 RBI’s.
The final game of the weekend had another win for Nevada with the final score being 15-10.
SJSU made their lead in the first inning after an RBI groundout with bases loaded. Nevada tied the game with a similar situation. Bases were loaded and Gomes had an RBI fly out to right field.
In the second inning, Nevada added on seven runs. The first four batters walked, scoring one run, which led to bases loaded for Zamora. Zamora walked up to the plate and was thrown a strike, a ball and then hit a home run to left field. Grand slam Zamora, Nevada takes the lead 6-1.
Another bases loaded moment was set up for Flores. He singled to shortstop and two runners ran in to make the score 8-1 at the bottom of the second.
Jack Colette hit a homer for SJSU which got two runs in. Although back up to bat was Zamora and he hit another home run, this time solo, to make the score 9-3.
It was an easy one, two, three for Nevada in the fourth with two swinging strikeouts and a ground out. Then at the bottom of the inning, the men were up to bat and put up a home run and an RBI double. This time, the home run was by Jackson and he brought in with him Flores who was on first base. Next up, Caulfield hit a double and Stinson hit an RBI single to increase Nevadas lead to 12-3.
A slow start to the sixth inning for Nevada led the Spartans to gain two runs. Three batters walked and a single by Hamchuck ran two in. Nevada put two more runs on the board on an RBI sacrifice fly out and an RBI double.
The score stood still at 14-5 during the seventh inning, but SJSU started to come back in the eighth. Hamchuk hit a grounder with bases loaded. One player scored and Nevada made a double play to get a fast two outs. A fifteenth run was scored by Nevada in the bottom of the eighth when a wild pitch allowed Jackson to touch home plate.
The Spartans took full advantage of their last up to bat but it wasn’t enough for a win. They scored four runs: RBI reach, RBI single, RBI groundout and RBI reach.
Nevada stayed on top and won 15-10, making them undefeated against SJSU so far this season. The teams will see each other again from April 22 to 24.
Next for Nevada baseball is two more home games on March 15 and 16 against Dixie State. These will not be counted in conference play.
The men are now 5-3 in conference and 9-8 overall.
Kelsey Middleton can be reached at kelseymiddleton@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @kelsmiddleunr