Fresno State sneaks past UNR in Mountain West tourney, faces UNLV next

Fresno State scored two runs in the eighth inning, then held off a UNR rally to win 4-3 on Wednesday night in the Mountain West baseball tournament at Wilson Stadium.

Top-seeded UNLV (33-21) plays No. 5 Fresno State (28-27) at 7 p.m. today. No. 2 New Mexico (37-18-1) faces No. 3 San Diego State (38-18) at 3. At 11 a.m., fourth-seeded UNR (28-26) meets No. 7 San Jose State (19-37) in an elimination game.

Fresno State scored twice in the eighth on a single by Jake Alvarez and a bases-loaded walk to Chris Mariscal to take a 4-1 lead.

The Wolf Pack loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth, but Ryan Teel grounded into an inning-ending double play. UNR again tried to rally in the ninth, with Austin Byler and Brad Gerig hitting RBI singles to close the gap to a run. Trenton Brooks then flied out to right to end the game.

Fresno State’s Jordan Brink (5-3) gave up six hits and one run in 5 2/3 innings.

San Jose State opened the first day of play by winning 11-3 over No. 6 Air Force (20-34) in the play-in game to eliminate the Falcons. Kalei Contrades (5-2) recorded 11 strikeouts in a complete-game effort for the Spartans.

But the Spartans then were routed 15-1 by San Diego State, which totaled 19 hits. Brad Haynal went 4-for-5 with two RBIs and three runs, Tyler Adkison drove in four runs on 3-for-4 hitting, and Ty France went 3-for-5 with two RBIs.