Game 2 of the 2026 Mountain West Softball Tournament was a matchup between the Colorado State Rams and the hosts of the tournament: the Nevada Wolf Pack. The Wolf Pack entered the tournament having lost four straight, losing on senior day to Fresno State, then being swept by hated rival UNLV in humiliating fashion. Perhaps falling into the #3 seed, thus getting a chance at a get-right game, was exactly what the doctor ordered. Nevada decimated Colorado State in this first-round matchup, using a huge
third inning to eventually win 10-1 in five innings.
Nevada started off with some major adversity: projected starter and team ace Tess Bumiller was hit in the head with an errant throw during warmups, knocking her out of the game and forcing Hailey McLean to start the go-or-go-home game against Ram ace Reagan Wick. Both pitchers signaled that runs would come at a premium early on by preventing any runs from coming across in the first two innings.
Colorado State took the lead on a Jailey Wilson line-shot home run in the top of the third, but McLean got out of the inning with strikeouts number 100 and 101 to leave the frame trailing just 1-0. That set things up nicely for Mountain West Player of the Year Hannah Di Genova to smash her 25th home run of the season, starting a Wolf Pack onslaught that drove Wick out of the game after just 2.0 innings. Giselle Bentley came into the game to attempt to slow down the Wolf Pack offense, but that change did not work at all. By the time the Rams ended the inning with a nifty catch of a potential 2-run double right at the warning track, Nevada already held a massive 8-1 lead.
McLean and Talia Tretton continued to shut down the Ram lineup, only allowing two more hits entering the bottom of the fifth. That led to Katie Wetteland crushing her 10th home run of the season to walk off the Rams in the bottom of the fifth, winning by a final score of 10-1.
Nevada racked up 14 hits on the night, racking up a team average of .519. Di Genova went 3-for-3, leading the team with four RBIs, extending her Wolf Pack record to an absurd 82 on the year. Madison Clark broke out of her weeks-long slump with a 3-for-4 day, while Wetteland and Matlyn Leetch each went 2-for-3. Lexi O’Gorman had a two-RBI double, while Karolyn Glover had a two-run shot of her own in the explosive third inning. McLean recorded the win, giving up four hits and the lone solo shot while striking out five and only walking two.
Nevada will move on to face #2-seeded UNLV in the second game tomorrow, starting at 6:00 p.m. PST. UNLV defeated just defeated Nevada in that embarrassing sweep a week ago, so this will be a revenge matchup in the first stage of the double-elimination rounds. Expect a lot of offense and even more emotion. Tune into this one on MWN, it will be an absolute slugfest.
