LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - The Hustlin' Rebels baseball endured a difficult evening on the mound and in the field Sunday, falling to San Diego State 15-1 in a seven-inning run-rule loss on Thursday night at Earl E. Wilson Stadium.
HOW IT WENT DOWN: San Diego State (33-20, 16-6 MW) wasted little time applying pressure, manufacturing a run in the opening inning after Dawson Santana walked, stole third and scored on Zach Justice's RBI groundout to give the Aztecs a 1-0 lead. UNLV (28-24, 9-13 MW) threatened briefly in the first when Drew Barragan singled, but the Scarlet & Gray were unable to capitalize against SDSU starter Rohan Lettow, who kept the home lineup off balance throughout his outing. The game swung decisively in the third inning as the Aztecs erupted for four runs. Santana doubled into the gap before Jake Jackson delivered a two-run double to center field. Later in the inning, Jackson scored on a throwing error and Max Farrell added an RBI double to stretch the lead to 5-0.
Gunnar Myro singled in the third and Reggie Bussey drew a pair of walks, but the Rebels stranded four runners through the first five innings. In the fifth inning, SDSU's Jabin Trosky singled and eventually scored on Farrell's sacrifice fly after advancing on another throwing error, extending the margin to 6-0. San Diego State then broke the game open in the sixth. Tyce Peterson and Anthony Marnell IV opened the inning with back-to-back hits before Zane Kelly and Santana each produced RBI singles. Jackson delivered the biggest blow of the afternoon with a towering three-run homer to deep center field, capping a five-run frame that pushed the Aztecs ahead 11-0.
SDSU added four more runs in the seventh inning behind RBI hits from Kelly and Marc Emmerman before Trosky lined a two-run single into left-center to make it 15-0. The Rebels avoided the shutout in the bottom of the seventh. Cooper Sheff sparked the inning with a double into the left-center gap and later scored on Ayden Garcia's sacrifice fly to right field for UNLV's lone run.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
-With Drew Barragan's 1-for-3 night, the redshirt senior has now reached base in all 50 games he has played in this season and has an on-base streak of 51 games dating back to his time at Western Kentucky last season.
-Nin Burns II, Cooper Sheff and Gunnar Myro were the other Rebels to record a hit.
-Gunnar Myro now has a 14-game hitting streak with his 1-for-3 evening.
-SDSU notched six doubles in the contest.
-Parker Dillhoff suffered his fourth loss of the season as the senior lefthander went 3.1 innings of work allowing five earned runs, four hits, four walks and five strikeouts.
UP NEXT: UNLV will play game two of the series Friday, May 15 at 6:05 pm before closing out the series on Saturday, May 16 at 12:05 pm.
