Box Score

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV baseball program (24-31) suffered a 15-7 defeat to the Air Force Falcons (29-25) on the first day of the 2016 Mountain West Championship, which is being contested at New Mexico's Santa Ana Star Field. The Falcons pushed out to an early three run lead through two innings of play Wednesday and never looked back en route to their eight-run victory.

With the loss, the fourth-seeded Rebels will play Thursday morning (11:00 am MT/10:00 am PT) against the loser of Wednesday night's affair between the No. 3 Nevada, Reno Wolf Pack and No. 6 San Diego State Aztecs. Air Force, which is seeded fifth overall, will also have to await the conclusion of the SDSU-UNR contest, which will determine who will play either top-seeded Fresno State (3:00 pm MT/2:00 pm PT) or second-seeded New Mexico (7:00 pm MT/6:00 pm PT).

The Rebels got three of their seven RBI from 2016 MW Co-Freshman of the Year Kyle Isbel, who produced runs off a sacrifice fly, a fielder's choice and a groundout. Cody Howard paced the team with two RBI while A.J. VanMeetren scored a pair of runs.

Air Force scattered an MW Championship record-tying 26 hits with four apiece from Nic Ready and Tyler Jones; both went 4-for-6 at the plate. Ready, who shared freshman honors with Isbel, knocked in six RBI â€" four of which came off a fourth-inning grand slam. Jones, on the other hand, led the team with four runs to go along with one RBI. Bradley Haslam recorded three RBI and scored three times with a 3-for-5 showing at the plate.

The Falcons opened the contest with three hits, the last two were of the run-scoring variety â€" a double from Haslam and a single by Ready. Haslam upped the lead to three runs with a sacrifice fly in the second inning.

"Air Force hit everything we threw; strikes, balls, everything," said head coach Stan Stolte. "And it didn't help that the wind was blowing out either. The crazy thing was that we got back into the game and got into a winnable situation, but our bullpen didn't keep us there outside of Cody Roper, who gave us a chance. We grounded out with the bases loaded, they hit a grand slam, they caught balls in the outfield that we didn't come up close to, and those were huge factors also. We played with energy and we will do so again tomorrow."

UNLV cut into its deficit in the third stanza with Isbel's sac fly. Howard scored on the fly ball after he initially reached via walk and then made his way to third base following an errant pickoff throw from Air Force starter Jacob DeVries (6-6).

Air Force blew the game open in the fourth with five runs off of five hits. Adam Groesbeck led off with a triple and came home two pitches later when Spencer Draws notched an RBI single. Haslam and Jones followed with their own base hits to load the bases for Ready's bases-clearing shot over the left-field fence. That hit spelled the end of UNLV starter D.J. Myers (6-4) day on the mound and, in turn, summoned Cody Roper from the bullpen.

The Rebels managed to score five runs between the fifth and sixth innings with two RBI coming from Isbel â€" one in each the fifth and sixth â€" and one apiece from VanMeetren, Austin Anderson and Howard. The last three occurred in the sixth with bases-loaded walks issued to VanMeetren and Anderson. Howard's RBI came off a single â€" the second and last hit by UNLV in the stanza.

In between UNLV's five-run outburst, the Falcons scored once more; an RBI single by Shaun Mize.

With the two teams separated by only three runs â€" 9-6 in favor of Air Force, the squad from Colorado Springs, Colo., put some breathing room between itself and UNLV with a five-run scoring differential (6-1) over the final two frames.

DeVries pitched 5.1 innings to earn the win and advance the Falcons into the winner's bracket of tournament play. He allowed four runs (three earned) off of two hits. He struck out four, but also walked four.

Tyler Mortenson and Matt Hargreaves combined to throw the final 3.2 innings with the former responsible for two runs while the latter gave up one. Hargreaves earned his first save of the season after throwing the final three innings.

Myers took the loss for UNLV after his stint only lasted 3.0 innings. He was roughed up for 12 hits and eight runs.

Roper managed to throw 4.1 innings of relief and he allowed two runs off of six hits. Three other relievers combined for five runs and four hits in 1.2 innings.

NOTES: With Wednesday's loss, UNLV's all-time record in the Mountain West Championship fell to 26-28 while its record in the first game sits at 11-6 … Of those five previous losses (pre-2016), UNLV came back with a victory once (2006) and suffered back-to-back defeats in 2000, 2009 and 2011 … UNLV is now 2-5 playing as the No. 4 seed.