Baseball's Winning Streak Snapped in Series Finale at Nevada

RENO, Nev. – The Air Force Academy baseball team fell in the series finale at Nevada, 15-9, Saturday afternoon, April 3, at Peccole Park. The Falcons had their six game winning streak snapped, but still took the series from the Wolf Pack, 2-1.

The Falcon offense pieced together 12 hits on the day, led by a three-hit day from junior Gabriel Garcia, including two RBIs. Fellow junior Braydon Altorfer added a two-RBI double, as well as three walks, while freshman Paul Skenes, who also drew a trio of walks, launched his second homer of the weekend, and fifth of the season, a two-run shot.

On the mound, sophomore Jake Sansing had a successful second pitching outing for the Falcons, as he tossed two scoreless frames, only allowing three hits.

Air Force was the first to strike in the top of the first on yet another Skenes home run, this one a two-run shot to deep left field. His second dinger of the weekend made it 2-0. Nevada answered right back with a run on the bottom of the first to put the score at 2-1 after one.

The Wolf Pack kept the offense rolling in the bottom of the second, striking for four more to leap ahead by three, 5-2. In the top of the third, AF looked like it was going to get a run back, but on a bang-bang play at the plate, the AF runner was ruled out to keep the score as is. Nevada then turned around and added three more runs to their lead in the bottom of the third to up the deficit to 8-2 into the fourth.

After a scoreless fourth, AF had another good opportunity in the top of the fifth, getting the bases loaded with one out, but on a sac fly attempt to right, the runner was thrown out at the plate again to keep the score as is at the midway point. The Wolf Pack tacked on another run in the bottom of the fifth to put the tally at 9-2 into the final four frames.

Nevada added four more in the bottom of the sixth to put the game on the brink of the 10-run rule in the seventh, but AF would not go down without a fight, scoring six runs in the top of the seventh. The Falcons got a single and two walks to load up the bases, and then a bases loaded walk from senior Christian Gambale made it a 10-run game.

Following a pitching change, Garcia singled in a runner, followed by a two-RBI double down the left field line from Altorfer to put the tally at 13-6. A little later, a wild pitch and RBI ground out made it a 13-8 game with two innings to go.

The Falcons got another one back in the top of the eighth on another RBI single from Garcia to cut the deficit to 13-9. Nevada was able to add some insurance in the bottom of the eighth with a two-run double to up their lead to six into the ninth. Despite getting a pair of runners on base in the ninth, AF could not plate any more runs in the 15-9 setback.

Air Force will return to the diamond next weekend, April 10-11, for a three game series at Fresno State.

Footer

The appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the u.s air force of non-u.s. government sites or the information, products, or services contained therein. Although the u.s. air force may or may not use these sites as additional distribution channels for department of defense information, it does not exercise editorial control over all of the information that you may find at these locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this website.