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.
1.Nevada (prev. 1; 23-17, 12-6 in conference)
- Lost vs Saint Mary’s 5-11
- 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.
2.SDSU (prev. 2; 26-18, 10-5 in conference)
- Won vs Seattle U 9-5
- Won at CSUN 4-3
- 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)
- Lost vs Gonzaga 16-8
- 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.
4.Air Force (prev. 7; 21-20, 12-6 in conference)
- 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)
- Won vs CSU Pueblo 11-3
- 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.
6.GCU (prev. 6; 14-26, 6-9 in conference)
- Lost vs Kansas State 3-8
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.
Due to their lack of a conference series and somewhat okay performance against a power four school, we didn’t want to move GCU much this week. And thanks to the schools below them, they were given a pass. However, the Lopes are on a razor thin edge, and will need to show up better this week to stay out of the bottom three. This could be the week they could make that happen, as they play BYU tonight and Arizona on Tuesday for non-conference games, then go to San Jose to take on the Spartans over the weekend.
7.UNLV (prev. 8; 24-19, 7-11 in conference)
- Lost series at Nevada 1-2 (3-13 L in eight, 8-7 W, 1-9 L)
UNLV had a short, but important week, as they went to Reno to take on Nevada in another installment of the Silver State Series. This year’s chapter did not go well for the Runnin’ Rebels, as they took the middle game on Saturday, but wound up taking two bad losses on their way to their third rivalry series loss in the last five years.
The Rebels are now in a dangerous situation, as they sit just below GCU as the first team out of the conference tournament. They also have a conference bye in the final three weeks, so while the path to getting the sixth or even fifth seed is mostly in control of their own destiny, UNLV will need to hope some situations pan out in their favor. Pitching control and more consistent hitting performances are needed for that change, which can begin with games against Utah Tech on the road and their non-conference, weekend matchup against Milwaukee.
8.SJSU (prev. 5; 17-24, 5-10 in conference)
- Got swept at Air Force (10-20, 6-16 in eight, 5-11)
The Spartans had the chance to get back in the right space before the home stretch in May, potentially setting themselves up for an opportunity for a conference tournament spot. However, in the battle of great pitching vs white hot batting, the latter from Air Force won. Credit will be given where credit is due, as the performance in the batters’ box was above average compared to most baseball teams. However, the exposé of San Jose State’s pitching was too much, as the program gave up a combined 47 runs across their three game set, which included a mercy rule loss in the middle.
While we thought this series would go to Air Force when it came down to it, this performance put the Spartans in a similar, but not as dire, situation as Fresno State when discussing the conference tournament. They will need a lot of things to fall their way and not for GCU, UNLV and New Mexico in order to continue their run of making the May classic. San Jose State will need to pick things up quickly, which they can with a potential confidence boost against San Francisco on Tuesday and a home series against GCU over the weekend, or they will risk being left out of Arizona for the first time since 2022.
9.Fresno State (prev. 9, 12-28-1, 1-13-1 in conference)
- Lost vs UC Davis 8-4
- Won vs Long Beach State 5-2
- Got swept vs San Diego State (3-4 in 11 innings, 5-8, 2-6)
As much as we have put Fresno State down for their season as a whole, they actually had a decent week. After losing their home game against UC Davis, the Bulldogs took care of Long Beach State in a good game overall. But then, the Diamond Dogs came up to the mountain known as San Diego State. They did wind up losing every game this series, but looked really competitive throughout, going as far as pushing the Aztecs to extras in the opening game and keeping things close until the final three innings in both of the latter games.
This was a good week for Fresno State, but good weeks sadly do not help you dig out of a hole you need to be perfect to get out of. The Bulldogs are basically eliminated from the conference tournament, as it would take a mathematically impossible string of events to happen in order for them to get the final spot. The Diamond Dogs’ final season in the Mountain West will sadly go without a conference tournament appearance, but they can at least pick things up to balance out their record at CSUN on Wednesday and Washington State over the weekend.
