FRESNO, Calif. (UNLVRebels.com) – The UNLV baseball team closed out the 2021 regular season with a loss to the Fresno State Bulldogs at Pete Beiden Field at Bob Bennett Stadium Sunday afternoon. The host Bulldogs pushed out to an early lead and never looked back en route to a 12-2, run-rule decision in seven innings.
The Scarlet & Gray concludes the regular season with a 20-13 overall record and 15-12 showing in Mountain West play. The Bulldogs, on the other hand, sit 19-23 on the year and 15-16 in the MW with a season-ending, three-game series at Air Force next weekend (May 28-29).
Moments after UNLV left two runners on base in the top half of the first, Fresno State took advantage of its opportunities in the home half of the frame. The Bulldogs got one run apiece off hits from Ryan Higgins (double) and Zach Presno (single) before Mason Grotto doubled the score with a two-run double.
From the second inning until the end of the contest, every run was a result of either a home run or a sacrifice fly. The Bulldogs upped their lead to six runs, 6-0, in the second off solo homers from EJ Andrews and Higgins.
UNLV was able to produce some offense in the fourth and fifth innings, getting sac flies from
Trevor Rosenberg and
Eric Bigani, respectively; however, Fresno State answered with its own sac fly in the fourth from Higgins and a two-run homer from Nate Thimjon in the fifth. Andrew Kachel added a two-run homer of his own in the sixth before Andrews' sac fly in the seventh brought the game to a close, enacting the 10-run rule.
Austin Kryszczuk paced the Rebels offensively, going 3-for-4 at the plate with one run.
Diego Alarcon, Bigani and
Edarian Williams also had one hit apiece.
Rebel starter
Josh Sharman (1-4) was handed the loss after he surrendered six runs off seven hits in 2.0 innings. The trio of Larry Quaney,
Noah Mattera and
Alex Tisminezky combined to throw the final 4.2 innings of relief, giving up six runs off 10 hits.
Fresno State's Kyle Pruhsmeier (3-1) picked up his second straight win in the series, throwing 1.0 inning of relief Sunday, and allowed one run off one hit in the fifth. Ixan Henderson got the start, but only threw 4.0 innings, while Tommy Hopfe and Nik Cardinal tossed scoreless eighth and ninth innings, respectively.
NOTES:
-Wold upped his reached-base streak to 19 games when he was walked in the first inning.
-Wold ended the regular season with batting .429, which is the highest average recorded by a Rebel since the Joe Wickman posted a .437 effort in the 2002 campaign.
-Besides batting average, Wold dominated nearly every offensive category, leading the team in at-bats (140), runs (33), hits (60), home runs (12), RBI (43), total bases (111), slugging percentage (.793), walks (19) and on-base percentage (.491).
