Box Score

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV baseball team scattered 18 hits Saturday, but left 13 runners on base en route to its 10-5 loss to the Air Force Falcons in Mountain West play Saturday afternoon at Falcon Field. The Falcons (14-15, 4-10 MW), who notched 12 hits of their own, broke open a two-run game â€" 4-2 through three â€" with a six-run fourth inning. The Rebels (11-22, 5-9 MW) managed to score three more times, but could not draw any closer than five.

The Scarlet & Gray jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in its first at-bat off a one-out RBI single by Cody Howard. Kyle Isbel, who scored on Howard's hit, and Payton Squier led off the first with back-to-back singles to right field. That lead was short lived; however, as Air Force was able to load the bases behind a pair of singles and a walk before runs came in off a double play and a passed ball.

The Falcons upped their lead to two â€" 3-1 â€" off a sacrifice fly by Adam Groesbeck in the second.

Each side managed to score in the third with one run apiece coming from a sac fly by Squier in the top half while Ryan Robb provided an RBI single in the home half.

Air Force broke things open in the fourth with six runs off of five hits and some assistance from two bases-loaded walks dealt by UNLV starter Larry Quaney (1-3). After Groesbeck and Nic Ready reached on one-out singles, Tyler Jones smacked a two-run double down the left-field line to start the big inning. Moments later, the Falcons loaded the bases off a walk and a single, but a fielder's choice resulted in an out at the plate. The walks as well as an RBI single from Drew Wiss followed and, subsequently, ended Quaney's day on the mound. Corey Wilson came in to get a fly out to end the stanza.

Wilson, Blaze Bohall and Andrew Schultz combined to throw the final 4.1 innings of relief for UNLV, and the trio allowed only two hits and held the Falcons' offense scoreless.

"It's discouraging to fall behind early again," said head coach Stan Stolte. "We battled to the last out, but the deficit was too much to overcome. We just have to make that one pitch to prevent the big inning. Wilson, Bohall and Schultz were outstanding out of the bullpen shutting Air Force down the last four innings. We had enough hits to produce more runs, but didn't come through a couple times that could have changed the game."

UNLV's offense fought back in the fifth and got two runs off a solo homer from Isbel and an RBI double from Justin Jones.

The Rebels cut their deficit to five â€" 10-5 â€" in the seventh with a run coming off a failed pickoff attempt. De La Trinidad, who had reached off a one-out double, found himself on third base after a single by Howard. With runners on the corners, Air Force's Nick Biancalana tossed errantly to first to allow De La Trinidad to score. Biancalana wound up allowing UNLV to load the bases with a single and a walk, but he got a groundout to end the threat.

Unfortunately, UNLV could not pull any closer despite leaving two runners on base in both the eighth and ninth innings. In all, the team left two or more stranded in five frames, and that includes the bases-loaded opportunity in the seventh.

The Rebels got multiple-hit efforts from seven players with three hits apiece from Isbel, Squier and De La Trinidad. Howard, Jones, Nick Ames and Nick Rodriguez registered two hits.

Quaney was handed the loss after he gave up 10 runs (eight earned) off of 10 hits and six walks. His counterpart, Air Force's Ethan Nichols, earned the win in 6.0 innings with only an allowance of four runs (three earned) and 11 hits.

The Conference series concludes Sunday at 1:00 pm MT (12:00 pm PT) at Falcon Field.

UNLV will take one more trip to Phoenix to face Arizona State (Tuesday, April 11) before it returns to Las Vegas for a MW series against San Diego State (April 13-15).