The Mountain West Looks Pretty Even After One Weekend

MWC Comes Back to Earth

What do I mean by that? Well, New Mexico's butt is still blistered from the shellacking they took from Dallas Baptist and Fresno State proves they are human by losing one game against San Diego State. Other than that, a bunch of two out of three series in MW games.

Dallas Baptist (8-3) at New Mexico (6-4)

Coming in to this series all things looked promising. But, it turned ugly quickly as the Lobos lost all three games to the visiting Patriots. I found out a little about New Mexico's pitching and it was not good news. I found out a little about their hitting; they can still hit. The Patriots came in and absolutely destroyed the Lobos' pitching staff by scoring 50 runs in the three games. One of the games was laughable at 33-8. I think coach found out a lot about his team in these three games. He might have to look at it as the perfect storm hit and now it's over. Back to the MWC next weekend but New Mexico State on Tuesday in El Paso for a single game. Anyway, back to the past weekend. I'm not going to pick over the remains and just say, fuggidaboud it and look forward. Highlights in these games? Are you kidding me? Yeesh, 33-8?

Nevada (4-7, 0-2) at Air Force (7-2, 2-0)

Air Force came into this series favored (by me) to take two of three. I was just guessing, of course but the Fly Boys look pretty good this year and Nevada is still in the figuring it out stage but have been doing better than I thought. Air Force took the first two but the third game was going Nevada's way when it was suspended due to the Pack having to catch a flight. That's something you don't see in the bigs. Griffin Jax (2-1) went 7 IP to win game one 5-2. Tyler Zabojnik was the hitting star as he went 3-4, two runs, and an RBI. Nevada's Christian Stolo (1-2) went the route in losing and deserved a bit better. The Falcons won the second game in easy fashion 18-4 and actually won it after one inning as they scored 12 in the first inning. The Falcons scored 11 runs while giving up only one out. I'm guessing the wind was going out as it always does. Ugly game. The Falcons' Tyler Jones finally got untangled and had a good game as he went 4-5 with 5 RBIs and 3 runs. Teammate Bradley Haslam was 3-6 with 2 runs and 4 RBIs. Starter Jacob DeVries (2-1) went six for the win. Nevada played well after the first inning but the 12 runs did them in. Nevada was leading 12-5 when it was called in the eighth. It will be finished in Reno when Air Force visits later. Yep, Air Force will be a force this season. Nevada plays at Sacramento State Wednesday if it isn't raining and Air Force plays Omaha Tuesday and Wednesday in Colorado Springs. Bring on the wind.

Fresno State (11-2, 2-1) at San Diego State (2-10, 1-2)

Right now, the Aztecs look pretty hapless. They win one of the three games thus handing the Bulldogs their first loss of the year. I don't think that will hurt the standings in the polls as this series was on the road. FSU's Russel Guibor provided the winner with his first home run in the top of the tenth inning as the Dawgs took game one 3-2 in extras. Game two also went the mutts way as they were leading 10-1 going into the bottom of the ninth. The Aztecs put a bit of a scare into Fresno State by scoring 4 runs to make it closer, but not a close 10-5. Jimmy Lambert (3-0) went 7 IP for the win and striking out 9 with no walks. That's some great pitching. The Aztecs gain some measure of respect by winning the final game 5-4. They scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth to win it. An error and a wild pitch allowed the inning to go on for an additional two outs and that's all it took. Aztec secondbaseman Justin Wylie drove in the final run which proved to be the winner as well as unearned. Tough to lose on unearned runs. Fresno's Anthony Arias went 6 IP and struck out 4 and walked only one for no decision. The starting rotation is solid, no doubt. SDSU's Brett Seeburger also did well with 6 2/3 IP striking out 9 and walking 2 for no decision. Pretty good pitching duel. SDSU's Dean Nevarez went 3-4 with a run scored. San Diego State takes the weekend off of MWC play to take on Northwestern for four games this weekend. The Bulldogs take on Long Beach State tonight (Monday) in Long Beach. That could prove to be a good one.

San Jose State (5-8, 1-2) at UNLV (3-6, 2-1)

Just when I thought San Jose State had turned a corner by coming back to win game two, they play game three as if it didn't matter much. The first game was won by the Rebels 2-1 as all runs were by home runs. SJS's Josh Nashed (0-2) pitched a complete game and certainly deserved a win. He gave up two solo dingers to Kyle Isbel and Nick Rodriguez which decided the game. Those homers came in the seventh and eighth innings and that had to be painful to watch for the boys in blue. The Spartans only got 4 hits and Shane Timmons had three of them which included his second home run. I watched this game on the MWC Network and the announcers were certainly impressed by this young man. He continued his hitting throughout the series. My poster boy. The Rebels DJ Myers went 6 IP and gave up only 3 hits and no runs with 7 strikeouts. A good start. Second game went to, amazingly enough, the Spartans. They fell behind 6-1 and things didn't look promising but they scored 10 unanswered runs to win 11-6. The top of the lineup for the Spartans did most of the heavy work as they had 8 hits in 14 ABs. In my estimation the big hit was a 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded and one out by, guess who? Shane Timmons for his only hit of the game. That hit plated two runs that put them up 9-6 in the seventh inning. Yeah, it was a big hit and I'm a little biased. UNLV starter, Dean Kremer, was nails through 3 IP but weakened in the fourth and the second time through the lineup. The big surprise was Blaze Bohall (1-2) who came on in relief and got lit up. I feel he's a very good pitcher based on last year's stats but hasn't done much yet. The Spartans' Joe Stefanki went 4-5 with 3 RBIs and he's a big ray of sunshine behind the plate. The Rebels' Corey Pool had a 3-run home run in a losing cause. Game three was all Kenny Oakley (1-2) as he pitches a complete game in winning for UNLV 4-2. The Spartans had their chances as they had 11 hits but no walks didn't help their cause. The Rebels' Corey Pool had 2 RBIs in the game and the Spartans' Ozzy Braff went 3-4 with a home run and Shane Timmons continued to hit going 2-4. This was a big win for the home team as it puts them 2-1 in Mountain West play. The Spartans play Saint Mary's Wednesday, not Tuesday as some of you may think and the Rebels will be playing at UC Riverside Tuesday and Wednesday, weather permitting.