The final weekend of April brought lots of excitement in Mountain West baseball. The Silver State Series wrote its latest chapter of the rivalry, in which the Wolf Pack came out on top in dominant fashion. Air Force took to the skies and swept San Jose State in convincing fashion at home, while Washington State had a great back-and-forth with New Mexico in Pullman that saw the Cougars nearly cement themselves in the conference tournament this year. All the while, San Diego State came back from their break with a great showing against Fresno State.
Three weeks remain in what will be a sprint to the finish line for nearly every team in the Mountain West, and we are here for it. Here are our week 11 Mountain West baseball power rankings.
Won series vs UNLV 2-1 (13-3 W in eight, 7-8 L, 9-1 W)
Nevada looked for vengeance against Saint Mary’s after taking a tough beating the week prior, but the Pack was unable to return the favor and started the week with an 11-5 loss. Nevada turned its attention to a huge weekend against in-state rival UNLV for three games. The Pack’s offense averaged 9.6 runs per game in the 2-1 series win, and besides the second game, the pitching shut the Rebels down.
Alessandro Castro started on the mound in the series finale, hurling 6.1 innings while striking out five and allowing just one run on six hits. Nevada’s offense exploded by hitting four home runs in that final game as well as this Silver State Series goes to the Pack. Nevada leads the conference in home runs with 59 and are now tied for first place with Air Force. The Wolf Pack will welcome Sac State for one game before hitting the road to face San Diego State this weekend.
Swept series at Fresno State (4-3 in 11 innings, 8-5, 6-2)
It was a pretty perfect week for the Aztecs, going 5-0 between three teams. After one game each against Seattle and CSUN, San Diego State took on the last place Fresno State Bulldogs on the road, and while it was filled with close games, the Aztecs brought out the brooms. SDSU had to fight in the first game of the series for 11 innings and hold off the Bulldogs’ potential comeback in the bottom half. It was a similar vibe the rest of the series, but timely scoring and shutout pitching when it mattered most is what helped the Aztecs with the three-game swep.
SDSU is just a few games behind Nevada and Air Force for first place and find themselves on a seven game winning streak. San Diego State will stay home all week to host Cal State Fullerton before a huge series against Nevada this weekend.
3.Washington State (prev. 3; 23-21, 11-7 in conference)
Won series vs New Mexico 2-1 (10-3 W, 3-4 L, 13-3 W)
The week for the Cougars started rough after a 16-8 loss to Gonzaga, but Washington State was determined to keep its hot streak as of late alive. Going into a tough weekend series over New Mexico, Wazzu did just that with a 2-1 series win. The first and third game of the series were commanding wins, first by 10-3 then 13-3. The second game was a heartbreaker for Washington State, as the Cougars loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the ninth but couldn’t complete the comeback. Still, Wazzu has won nine of its last 13 games and are still in the hunt for the regular season title.
Washington State will play just one series this week with a three-game matchup over Fresno State at home.
Swept series vs San Jose State (20-10, 16-6 in eight, 11-5)
It wasn’t long ago that Air Force was among the bottom of our rankings and it appeared that it would be another year toward the bottom of the standings. With just a few weeks left however, the Falcons have soared their way to the top of the MW standings and boosted that streak after a three game sweep over San Jose State. It was the third series sweep for Air Force as the team reamins perfect at home with a 14-0 record.
Air Force didn’t just win, it won in dominant fashion. The offense was explosive and have the third best offense in the conference. The Falcons are also dominating the conference in stolen bases with a huge lead of 120 swiped bags. Air Force is tied with Nevada for first place and find itself playing some great baseball as of late. The Falcons will get Northern Colorado this week before traveling to face New Mexico for a weekend series.
5.New Mexico (prev. 4; 25-17-1, 10-7-1 in conference)
Lost series to Washington State 1-2 (3-10 L, 4-3 W, 3-13 L)
The week started off on the right foot for New Mexico beating CSU Pueblo 11-3 which created a small two game winning streak. That quickly diminished after a tough weekend against Washington State, which just like we highlighted above, was a very entertaining weekend but ended in a sour series loss for the Lobos. New Mexico held off the comeback by Washington State in game two that prevented the potential sweep, but gave up double-digit runs in the other two games.
The Lobos picked up nine hits in the final game as outfielder Anthony Diaz extended his hit streak to 13 games. New Mexico will be home all week, starting with another rematch over in-state rival New Mexico State. The Lobos will then host first place Air Force for their final home series against conference opponents.
Grand Canyon had a short week, with a quick game against the Big 12’s own Kansas State. The Lopes were doing good at first, scoring three runs in the first two innings while holding the Wildcats to just one. However, that start did not carry through the rest of the evening, as Kansas State scored in seven unanswered runs, five of which came in the seventh, to give Grand Canyon their 26th loss of the season, which is the second most overall losses behind Fresno State.