UNLV baseball team falls at Arizona State, 5-2

UNLV couldn’t hold a 2-0 lead as Arizona State rallied for a 5-2 nonconference baseball win over the No. 20 Rebels on Tuesday in Tempe, Ariz.

UNLV (25-12) staked starting pitcher Kenny Oakley (3-3) to the lead with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, as Justin Jones’ single scored Matt McCallister in the fifth after McCallister had doubled and Patrick Armstrong hit a home run in the sixth.

But Arizona State tied the score in the bottom of the sixth when Trever Allen was hit by a pitch by Oakley with one out and Dalton DiNatale and Brian Serven hit back-to-back doubles.

The Sun Devils (20-14) took a 3-2 lead in the seventh. Tucker Esmay led off with a single, was sacrificed to second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on Colby Woodmansee’s sacrifice fly. They scored two more runs in the eighth.

The Rebels return to Mountain West play at 2 p.m. Thursday at Air Force, the first game of a three-game series.