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Late Friday night, San Diego State was looking very good to go to the Mountain West title game Saturday night, but the Aztecs blew an eighth-inning lead to host UNLV and was instead of four outs to be in the title game to now two wins away.
San Diego State took on Nevada in an elimination semifinal game on Saturday. The Wolf Pack had been on a tear and had been facing elimination since the first day of the tournament. San Diego State was led by freshman Marcus Reyes who gave just a single earned run over 7 2/3 innings.The victory went to closer Michael Cederoth, who came on in to replace Reyes, as the Aztecs were leading 2-1, and ended up getting the win.
Nevada came back to tie the game and send it to extra innings, but the game ended in the 10th when left fielder Seby Zavala had his third hit of the day when he hit a line drive to left field off Nevada junior relief pitcher Colby Blueberg which scored Ty France for the winning run. Zavala went 3 for 5 with three RBI for the Aztecs.
In the second game on Saturday between UNLV and San Diego State, the Rebels needed to win to take the tournament crown, and the Aztecs needed a win to force a final elimination game on Sunday. San Diego State was 24 hours removed from blowing a late lead against UNLV. The Aztecs made the difficult road back to face UNLV again, and this time San Diego State did not take anything for granted.
UNLV did get out to a 1-0 lead when catcher Erik VanMeetren was knocked in during the second inning, but San Diego State opened up a big lead by scoring four runs in the fourth inning as the Aztecs took a commanding 5-1 lead. San Diego State scored nine unanswered runs to win 9-1.
San Diego State starting pitcher Brett Seeburger was the player of the game as he went 8.1 innings, struck out six, walked four and allowed seven hits. He also had a key in stopping a potential UNLV rally by picking off VanMeetren in the fourth inning.
Now, the final game is Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. PT (watch live here) in a winner take all for the Mountain West title. UNLV is looking for their first conference tournament title since 2005, while San Diego State is looking to win back-to-back titles.