UNLV did not lose this opener because of one bad inning. It lost it because almost nothing on the mound held together.
Washington State rolled past the Rebels 13-2 in eight innings Friday night at Earl E. Wilson Stadium, turning nine walks, three hit batters and a pile of free bases into a comfortable series-opening win. UNLV used four pitchers, and together they allowed 12 earned runs on 11 hits. The loss dropped the Rebels to 22-16 overall and 5-8 in Mountain West play, tied for seventh with Grand Canyon and five games back of Nevada in the conference race.
The second inning told the story
Washington State started cashing in early, and it did not need much hard contact to do it. Parker Dillhoff walked three batters in the second, hit another, and the Cougars turned the traffic into four runs. Kyler Northrop lined a two-run double to third, Gavin Roy added an RBI single, and Max Hartman brought home another on a fielder’s choice. By the time the inning ended, UNLV was already chasing a 4-0 game.
That was the shape of the night. Washington State kept getting runners, kept forcing stressful counts, and kept turning free passes into damage.
Rebels never found enough offense
UNLV had chances, but never much momentum. Cooper Sheff doubled and scored in the third on Jayden Hertel’s RBI single to cut the deficit to 4-1. That was as close as the Rebels got. Washington State answered with two more runs in the fourth, another in the fifth, and one more in the sixth to make it 8-1 before the game finally broke apart in the eighth.
The Rebels finished with nine hits, but most of them came in scattered spots. Drew Barragan had two hits and scored once. Hertel also had two hits and an RBI. Nin Burns II went 2-for-2 with two walks and drove in UNLV’s second run with an eighth-inning double. Still, the Rebels struck out nine times and left too many quiet innings in the middle of the game.
Four pitchers, too many free bases
This was a rough night for the staff from start to finish. Dillhoff took the loss and fell to 3-2 after allowing six earned runs in four innings. He walked six and hit two, which put UNLV behind the count and behind on the scoreboard almost immediately. Reese Lueck covered the next two innings and gave up two more runs. Cody Albright then worked a clean seventh but could not survive the eighth, when Washington State hung five more runs on the board. Jacob Gomberg came on during that mess and allowed the last run home.
Put it all together and the line was ugly: four pitchers, 11 hits, nine walks, three hit batters, 12 earned runs. That is not survivable, especially against a team sitting above you in the standings.
Eighth inning finished it
If the second inning set the tone, the eighth removed any doubt. Washington State scored five times in the frame, using a walk, a passed ball, a hit batter, a sacrifice fly and two wild pitches to turn a seven-run game into a rout. Only two hits landed in the inning, but the Cougars still scored five times.
Up next
UNLV continues the series against Washington State on Saturday at 6:05 p.m. PT at Earl E. Wilson Stadium.
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Dice City Sports editor Mark Hebert covers the Vegas Golden Knights, Las Vegas Raiders, Athletics, and UNLV baseball and softball. He has 24 years of journalism experience, is also a senior reporter at Exhibit City News, and previously covered the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers. Follow him on X or connect on LinkedIn.
