Thanks in large part to the offense and defense of Dayton's Matt Bowman, the University of Nevada clinched a spot in the Western Athletic Conference postseason tournament with a 5-4 win at New Mexico State on Thursday.
Bowman, who went 2-for-4 with two doubles, hit a double that helped score the winning run in the top of the ninth inning, then turned a key double play in the bottom of the ninth to help secure the win.
Bowman is now hitting .361 (69-for-191) on the season.
In the top of the ninth, Bake Krukow singled and was replaced by pinch runner Drew Johnson. Bowman doubled and Johnson scored on an error on the play to make it 5-4.
The Aggies loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, but Bowman took a groundball at third and fired to catcher Jordan Opdyke, who then threw to Dan Eastham at first to complete the double play. After Wesley Dorsett issued an intentional walk to reload the bases, he got a foul out to end the game. Dorsett pitched three scoreless innings for the win.
Nevada took a 2-0 lead in the third when Bowman walked and Shawn Scobee singled.
Bowman and Scobee both scored on Terry Walsh's single.
New Mexico State came back to score two runs in the fourth to tie the score 2-2. Eastham's two run home-run in the fifth gave the Wolf Pack a 4-2 lead.
After pitching six strong innings for Nevada, Tim Schoeninger was touched for two runs as the Aggies tied the score 4-4 in the seventh.
Dorsett was able to work out of a jam in the seventh to prevent any more damage. With the bases loaded and one out, Dorsett induced an inning-ending double play.
Walsh also had two hits for Nevada. Jason Conner pitched well for the Aggies, striking out nine over 7.2 innings. Nevada improved to 23-26 and 9-12 in the WAC while the Aggies fell to 19-34, 6-16.