Box Score

FRESNO, Calif. (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV Rebels (8-8 overall, 3-1 Mountain West) opened up their three-game, Mountain West Conference series against the Fresno State Bulldogs (11-7, 2-2) Friday with a 4-2 victory at Pete Beiden Field. Corey Pool's three RBI and strong pitching from D.J. Myers and Ben Wright paced the Rebels to the two-run win.

All of the game's scoring occurred between the fourth and seventh innings with UNLV pushing two across in both the fourth and sixth, while FS was able to notch single tallies â€" solo home runs â€" in the fifth and seventh.

Payton Squier got the fourth started with a one-out single up the middle moments before Pool cranked the second pitch he saw from Ricky Tyler Thomas (2-2) over the left-field fence.

The 'dogs were able to get one run back in the fifth with a leadoff, solo homer to Brody Russell.

The Rebels upped their lead to three runs in the sixth with help from three hits, a sacrifice bunt and a groundout. Austin Anderson led off with a double before moving up 90 feet off another single by Squier. With runners on the corners, Pool laced an RBI single through the left side to plate Anderson. Both Squier and Pool advanced a base when Justin Jones dropped down a sac bunt. Squier eventually scored off a grounder put in play by Andrew Yazdanbakhsh.

An inning later, Aaron Arruda hit a solo shot to left field to cap the affair's offensive output.

"That was a good, hard-fought win for us," said head coach Stan Stolte. "Both teams played good baseball defensively and pounded the zone from a pitching standpoint. This is a hard place to get that 27th out and we stayed focused late against a team that always fights to the last out. D.J. and Ben stepped up and pitched well and Anderson, Squier and Pool carried us offensively. We had 14 ground ball outs defensively without committing an error, which we have to do to be successful."

Myers improved to 2-0 with his second straight win. The junior hurler went a season-best seven innings and struck out three against two runs and six hits.

Wright earned his fourth save of the year after he tossed two innings of scoreless relief. He gave up one hit and walked one, but also fanned one. In his last five appearances, he has one win and four consecutive saves.

FS' Thomas was saddled with the loss after he was roughed up for four runs off of eight hits. He struck out six; however, he did not walk one. He gave way to teammate Tim Borst who pitched the eighth and ninth and racked up four strikeouts against one hit and one walk.

NOTES: UNLV's win snapped a seven-game losing streak to Fresno State â€" all seven losses occurred during the 2015 season … Squier extended his reached-base streak to 14 games with a pair of singles … Squier has collected a hit in 14 of UNLV's 16 games this season … UNLV improved to 7-1 in games decided by one or two runs … UNLV improved to 7-0 when it holds its opposition to five or less runs … UNLV improved to 7-5 when it scores five or less runs.