Nevada baseball settles for split

Dayton's Matt Bowman went 3-for-5 with a home run and scored three runs to lead the University of Nevada baseball team to its ninth straight win, a 7-3 victory at Sacramento State on Saturday.

Nevada, though, had its nine-game winning streak snapped in the nightcap of the doubleader as it fell to the Hornets 7-5.

In the opener, Nevada scored a run in the top of the second inning to take a one-run lead. Terry Walsh was hit by pitch to start the inning and moved to third on Drew Johnson's double to the centerfield fence. With two outs Walsh scored on a wild pitch.

In the third inning David Ciarlo walked and Shawn Scobee was hit by pitch with one man out before the rains washed away the rest of the day.

When the game resumed on Saturday the Pack had two runners on base and Walsh at the plate with a count of 1-1. New Hornet pitcher Mitch Lively attempted a pickoff at second on the first play of the day and threw the ball into centerfield as Ciarlo came around to score the Pack's second run.

In the fifth Bowman belted his third home run of the season over the center field fence to make it 3-0. Bowman doubled in the eighth and scored on Walsh's sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.

In the ninth Nevada scored three runs. Durell William's sacrifice fly scored the first run, Ciarlo's homer was the second run of the inning, and Walsh drove in his second run of the game with a single to give the Pack (14-13, 4-1 in the Western Athletic Conference) a commanding 7-0 advantage.

CSUS (12-20, 1-4) sent eight batters to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning and three scored to make the final score 7-3. Pack closer Wesley Dorsett came in to retire the final two hitters of the game and earn his second save of the season.

Travis Sutton (3-1) got the win in relief of starter Tim Schoeninger who pitched the first two innings of the game on Friday. Sutton allowed three runs, two earned in 6.1 innings on the mound and struck out four.

Jordan Opdyke finished with two hits and a run scored.

In the nightcap, the Pack scored a run in the first to take a 1-0 lead. Ciarlo got things going with a leadoff single and Bowman followed with a double. Scobee plated the run with his sacrifice fly.

The first two Hornet hitters were retired in the bottom of the second but then six more came to the plate and four scored to put CSUS on top 4-1.

Walsh hit a two-run homer in the third to pull the Wolf Pack within a run at 4-3. Leo Radkowski's two-run homer in the fourth inning pushed the Pack in front 5-4. The Hornets scored runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh to take a 7-5 lead.

Pack starter Ryan Rodriguez allowed five runs on nine hits and struck out six in his 4.2 innings. Reliever Matt Renfree (1-2) was tagged with the loss after giving up the go ahead run in the sixth inning.

Matt Suleski (2-for-4) was the only Nevada hitter to collect more than one hit in the game. Bowman went 1-for-5 and is now hitting .375 (39-for-104) on the season. Carson's Owen Brolsma pitched a scoreless inning of relief.

Game three of the series today has been moved to an 11 a.m. start in an attempt to avoid rain that is supposed to be in the area in the afternoon.