The Nevada Wolf Pack invented a new way to win a baseball game Tuesday afternoon.
With the game tied 10-10, Jamison Rowe struck out swinging with two outs in the ninth inning on a wild pitch, allowing Tommy Niebergall to score the winning run as the Wolf Pack escaped with an 11-10 victory over the UC Davis Aggies.
The wild pitch was tossed by Davis freshman pitcher Max Cordy, allowing Niebergall to score the eventual winning run. Cordy, who suffered the loss to fall to 3-2 on the year, had walked Niebergall to open the inning. The 6-foot-4 Cordy also walked a hitter, hit another hitter and tossed another wild pitch in a three-run eighth inning that allowed the Pack to tie the game at 10-10.
The Wolf Pack, which opens a three-game Mountain West series against Air Force on Friday (2 p.m.) at Peccole Park, improved to 11-6. Davis fell to 7-10.
Adam Whitt (1-2) earned the victory by pitching a scoreless eighth inning. Michael Fain pickled up his fifth save of the year with a scoreless ninth, retiring the Aggies in order on just 10 pitches (two strikeouts).
The Pack jumped out to a 5-0 lead with three runs in the first, one in the second and other in the fifth.
Rowe singled and scored in the first, second and fifth innings. In the first and second innings he scored both times on a Kewby Meyer single. He scored on a Brett Jones sacrifice fly in the fifth. Rowe ended up 3-for-5 with four runs scored.
Brooks Klein also had a RBI double in the first.
Davis, though, got three unearned runs in the fifth off Pack starter Barry Timko and scored six times in the sixth off Pack relievers Mark Reece, Daniel Levine, Kody Gorden and Colby Blueberg.
Reece hit three Davis hitters and walked one in his two-thirds of an inning of work. Levine allowed four hits and four runs without getting an out.
The Pack cut Davis' lead to 9-7 with a pair of runs in the seventh. Klein walked with the bases loaded to force in a run and Niebergall had a sacrifice fly. The Pack then tied the game at 10-10 with three runs in the eighth. Scott Kaplan hit a two-run double and later scored as Austin Byler reached on an error.
Kaplan and Meyer each went 2-for-4 with two runs scored. The first four Pack hitters -- Rowe, Kaplan, Meyer and Byler -- were a combined 8-for-16 with nine runs scored and five RBI.
Davis had 17 hits off seven Pack pitchers. Each team made three errors.
