RENO — The University of Nevada baseball team dropped the first game of a three-game Mountain West series, 12-7 to San Diego State at Don Weir Field at Peccole Park on Thursday.
The Wolf Pack fell to 27-22 overall and 18-9 in the Mountain West while the Aztecs improved to 36-17 and 18-10. The MW-leading Pack needs to win one of the final two games of the series from second-place SDSU to clinch the regular season conference title.
The Pack led 5-1 after three innings, scoring a single run in the first inning on Grant Fennell’s RBI double. Weston Hatten, Keaton Smith and Joshua Zamora had RBI hits as part of a three-run second inning and it was 4-1. Zamora’s single in the fourth made it 5-1.
SDSU scored twice in the top of the fifth but Dillan Shrum’s two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth made it 7-3. The Aztecs got a grand slam from Jordan Verdon in the top of the sixth to tie the score at 7-7 and scored four in the eighth and one in the ninth.
Bradley Bonnenfant (0-1) allowed two runs in the sixth inning and was tagged with the loss. Adrian Mardueno (7-1) earned his seventh win pitching two scoreless innings of relief.
Shrum led the Pack with a game-high four hits and drove in two with his fifth home run of the season. Zamora, Fennell, Hatten and Smith added two hits each as the Pack totaled 15 in the game.
Verdon finished with a game-high four RBI coming on his 12th home run of the season. Chad Bible and Dean Nevarez had three hits each as the Aztecs totaled 16 in the game.
Friday’s game is scheduled for a 6 p.m.