Esmay’s two homers can’t rally Rebels to baseball win at UNR

Cooper Esmay’s two home runs weren’t enough to rally UNLV to victory Saturday, as UNR held on for a 9-7 win over the Rebels in a Mountain West baseball regular-season finale in Reno.

The Wolf Pack (33-22, 20-10) took two of three in the weekend series and defeated UNLV (24-30, 14-16) five times in six meetings this season.

The Rebels finished fourth in the Mountain West standings and will face fifth-place Air Force in the first round of the league tournament at 2 p.m. Wednesday in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

T.J. Friedl’s two-out, two-run triple highlighted UNR’s four-run fourth inning, and Keaton Smith’s two-run double was the key hit in a four-run fifth that put the Wolf Pack up 9-2.

Esmay hit a solo home run in the sixth and a three-run shot in UNLV’s four-run eighth.

Payton Squier went 3-for-5 with a double, Justin Jones and Kyle Isbel added two hits apiece for the Rebels, and Nick Ames hit a two-out, two-run single in the second inning that opened the scoring.

Jordan Pearce, who went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and scored twice, was one of five players with multiple hits for UNR, which held a 14-12 edge in hits.

Wolf Pack starter Trenton Brooks (5-5), who had a double and a single, gave up three runs on seven hits and two walks and struck out three in six innings.

UNR got to Rebels starter Dean Kremer (4-5) for eight runs on 10 hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings.