2014 Mountain West baseball tournament: San Diego State tops UNLV, 4-3

San Diego State decided to take the hard road to win back-to-back Mountain West baseball tournament titles. The Aztecs staved off elimination after blowing a lead against UNLV on Friday night. The Aztecs had to defeat Nevada and UNLV on Saturday night to make it to Sunday's title game.

The Aztecs came up in a big way as they topped No. 1 seeded, and home team, UNLV 4-3 to earn the conferences automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. San Diego State scored three runs in the top of the first inning and that was enough to hold off a UNLV rally.

The scoring started with a barrage of hits and advancement of runners on sacrifice plays. Ty France made it to second base which knocked in Greg Allen for the first run of the game. France was able to cross home plate on a sacrifice fly by Seby Zavala to put the Aztecs up 2-0, and then Steven Pallares dropped a bunt which was able to score Brad Haynal to give the Aztecs a three-run lead after the first inning.

UNLV answered in the bottom half of the first inning off a fielders choice, but then the pitching kicked in and there were no more runs until the bottom of the fifth inning. The Rebels tied the game at three on a two-run RBI double by Morgan Stotts.

The eventual game-winning run came in the top of the sixth when San Diego State's Evan Potter knocked in Zavala to win 4-3.

UNLV would not go down quietly and had a chance to tie, or win the game. The Rebels were able to get a runner to third base after a hit, sacrifice and then a passed ball. With two outs and a runner on third but Justin Jones flied out to end the game.

The lose for UNLV likely only placed a small cent into their possible NCAA tournament seed.