Champions again: Nevada baseball secures second Mountain West title

Earlier this week, Nevada closer Keone Cabinian, a senior, said he had replayed in his head many times getting the final out of the game to clinch a Mountain West championship.

On Friday night against San Diego State, with his team holding a double-digit lead, Cabinian took the mound in the ninth inning with the chance to make that memory. He didn't disappoint. Neither did the Wolf Pack.

After Cabinian tossed a hitless inning to seal the Wolf Pack's 13-3 win and to capture the school's second MW baseball title, catcher Kaleb Foster sprinted to the mound and jumped on Cabinian with enough force to knock down of them down before an announced crowd of 793 fans at Peccole Park.

The celebration, which included a Gatorade bucket drenching of third-year coach T.J. Bruce, was on. After arguably the worst season in program history in 2017, Nevada responded with one of its best. The program that won the school's first championship in the MW, doing so in 2015, is champions again.

"Unbelievable," Bruce said. "These guys did it and the put so much hard work and effort into everything they do and they believe in themselves and each other. They did an unbelievable job."

Only six players from that 2015 team remain on this year's squad, with Bruce remaking the roster after taking over from Jay Johnson, who left for Arizona after the 2015 season. Bruce's team had a strong 2016, a down 2017 and now a championship-caliber 2018.

"We did it freshman year, but doing it as a senior is amazing," outfielder Grant Fennell said. "This one is way more special. The seniors took the leadership when I was a freshman and us seniors this year took over and we did it."

Nevada (28-22, 19-9 MW) entered the three-game series with SDSU (36-18,18-11) needing just one win to take the MW crowd. It appeared that task would be completed Thursday as the Wolf Pack burst to a 5-1 lead after four innings and a 7-3 edge after five frames, but SDSU rallied to score a 12-7 victory.

"In these situations, you have a tendency to get a little bit out of character, and I thought we got a little out of character yesterday," Bruce said of the 12-7 loss. "What it boils down to is the mental game. You have to be pitch to pitch, you have to be in the moment and be present and be where your feet are."

The Wolf Pack took another early lead Friday, but this time never gave it up.

Nevada scored five first-inning runs on just two hits as SDSU starter Harrison Pyatt was chased without recording an out. He allowed two singles, three walks and hit a batter before being pulled. A four-run fifth inning and three-run sixth put the game out of reach.

Wolf Pack starter Dalton Gomez (3-3) made sure those runs were more than enough. Tossing 130 pitches, Gomez allowed just eight runners over eight innings. He struck out a career-high 10 and didn't walk a batter. Cabinian came in for the clean ninth frame.

Cole Krzmarzick went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and Keton Smith went 2-of-3 with four RBIs. They were the only Nevada batters with multi-hit games. Foster also popped his fifth home run of the season. In addition to its 10 hits, Nevada milked seven walks and was hit by four pitches.

The victory marked Nevada's sixth MW title in any sport since moving to the conference in 2012. The baseball team won titles in 2015 and 2018; men's basketball has won titles in 2017 (both regular season and tournament) and 2018; and women's swimming and diving won in 2016.

After Saturday's series finale, Nevada and SDSU both return to San Diego, where the MW will hold its annual conference tournament. The winner of that four-team event will receive the MW's automatic bid into an NCAA Regional, a place Nevada has not reached since 2000 under coach Gary Powers.

Prior to the start of this season, Bruce told his players he thought it was a championship-caliber team. On Friday, they proved it.

"You have to manifest your thoughts," Bruce said. "I believed in these guys since day, and they believed in themselves. ... You have to credit the players for coming out and performing and really buying in. It takes a lot of work, and they did it."