On what was a beautiful day, San Diego State baseball struggled defensively, which led to an 8-2 loss against Nevada.
Omar Serrano started on the mound for the Aztecs (5-9, 2-3 Mountain West), coming off his first career complete game at Fresno State. He retired all three batters in the first inning, but Nevada (5-7, 1-1) brought home the game’s first runs in the next frame.
Nevada designated hitter Taylor Holder drove an RBI triple into right center field to make the contest 1-0. Holder then scored on an RBI single by third baseman Jackson Waller to make it 2-0 after the top of the second.
SDSU designated hitter Jacob McCombs knocked a single to right field in the bottom of the frame, but center fielder Jake Jackson grounded to third for a double play that ended the inning.
The Wolf Pack kept howling with extra base hits in the top of third, with back to back doubles from left fielder J.R. Freethy and first baseman Jesse Pierce, making it 3-0.
“The extra base hits showed up because of our inability to play quality defense and then end the inning with two outs or two strikes,” said head coach Shaun Cole. “We had seven base runners with two outs tonight. Six of those seven were with two strikes.”
Despite Nevada’s bats making noise, Cole thought Serrano’s pitching was not to blame.
“I thought (Serrano) competed really well, got deep into the ball game, didn’t give up too many free passes, just didn’t get a lot of support behind him and he made a throwing error at second also,” Cole said. “(Serrano) filled up the strike zone, just too many mistakes defensively tonight.”
SDSU answered Nevada’s offense in the bottom of the third. Right fielder Shaun Montoya drove home catcher Evan Sipe, who had singled to get on base. Sipe had a nice offensive outing, going 2-for-3 with a run and a walk.
“I think what led to my success tonight was just being confident in my abilities, my preparation and my approach,” Sipe said. “Knowing that I needed to fight for our pitchers, to get some runs going, to get something going offensively.”
Despite Sipe’s efforts to spark the team offensively, SDSU failed to bring runners home, while Nevada capitalized on their opportunities. The Wolf Pack were able to extend their lead to 8-1 thanks to their power hitting and five errors by the Aztecs.
“Whenever you make that many errors, it’s gonna be tough to beat anybody,” Cole said. “Unfortunately that seems just like a lack of focus, it’s not a lack of talent… they were starting to trend up defensively in the last number of games and they took a pretty big step backwards tonight with this many errors.”
First baseman Tino Bethancourt scored on a passed ball to make it 8-2 in the ninth, but the damage was far too much and Nevada evened the series at one a piece.
The Aztecs will have a chance to win the series on Sunday. First pitch will be at 1 p.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium
“It’s definitely big, it’s a chance for us to get back at being .500 in-conference,” Sipe said. “Definitely need to come out with some sort of fire tomorrow and really put it on.”
