Thomason breaks home run record, Falcons win 8-5

GREELEY- Air Force opened the new week in style, as the Falcons rode a record-breaking swing and timely two-out hitting on the way to victory, taking down Northern Colorado 8-5.

Jay Thomason entered Tuesday tied with Nic Ready for the most home runs in an Air Force career, and he departed Jackson Field having broken the deadlock. Thomason slugged his 14th home run of the spring and the 51st of his Falcon career in his first plate appearance, surpassing Ready's record of 50 career homers set in 2019. He now sits just three home runs shy of tying BYU's Sean McNaughton's Mountain West career home run record of 54 set in 2010.

Along with the solo shot, Thomason finished 1-3 with an intentional walk.

Sam Kulasingam was one of two Falcons to pick up at least three hits on Tuesday, going 3-5 with a triple, a double, and 1 RBI. The switch-hitter drove in Chase Spencer in the 3rd with a two-out triple to right-center before coming around to score after a leadoff double in the 6th.

Later on in the 6th, Tripp Garrish would eventually swat his second home run in as many games, a three-run home run to give the Falcons a 6-2 lead. Garrish finished a perfect 3-3 with a walk, marking the first three-hit game of his collegiate career.

In his past six games, Garrish is 9-20 (.450) with 5 RBIs.

Chase Spencer was 2-4 with a walk, bringing in two runs with a two-out triple in the 8th to extend the Air Force lead to 8-2. Spencer extended his hitting streak to 11-consecutive games and is 19-44 (.432) in that span.

Four of the Falcons eight runs were produced with two outs.

In what became a bullpen game, Air Force used six different arms to piece together the win. Jack Bello was given the start, as the sophomore allowed just one run over his 2.0 innings. Jimmy Hebenstreit was given the 3rd and 4th innings with his only blemish being a solo home run in the latter frame.

Bowen Brantingham picked up his second win of his debut season, tossing 2.0 scoreless innings in the 5th and 6th while recording three strikeouts over his six outs.

After Brantingham opened the 7th with a hit-batter, Sam Hentges cleaned up the remainder of the inning, ending the frame with a punchout. Hentges wasn't responsible for a run over his 1.1 innings.

Gaines Estridge struck out two in a scoreless 8th, though a one-out walk in the 9th wasn't erased after a potential double-play ball was mishandled. The following batter would hit a three-run home run to see Northern Colorado shrink the Air Force lead to 8-5. In need of two outs, Kyle Moats came through retiring two of three batters he faced, including a strikeout to end the ballgame.

The win gives Air Force a 2-1 advantage over Northern Colorado, as the two sides closed the season series on Tuesday.

Next, the Falcons will host the Nevada Wolf Pack beginning Friday, April 26. Air Force and Nevada will resume the suspended game from March 30 at 1:00 pm MT before starting the three-game series immediately following the conclusion of the suspended game.

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