By James Hernandez 

Southern Nevada entered its final non-conference action of the season riding a nine game winning streak as they hosted the 2018 Coyote Round Robin tournament.

CSN began the tournament versus a Prairie Baseball Academy team that they had outscored 15-1 in the teams two previous meetings this season.

The mountain to climb got taller for the Dawgs as they were opposed by arguably the best arm in CSN's rotation, Joey O'Brien. The "Swiss Army Knife" was completely unhittable over three dominant innings of work. Joey struck out half a dozen Dawgs over three no-hit innings.

Not to be outdone by his work on the mound, the Coyotes leading run producer tied for the team lead in runs batted in with a pair. O'Brien tied Roger Riley, Nick "Chewy" Hernandez and Wyatt Featherston with a game-high two runs batted in apiece.

Southern Nevada dispatched Prairie Baseball Academy 12-2 to improve to 14-4 overall and extend the winning streak to ten games.

Game two of the Coyote Round Robin matched the Coyotes up with a familiar foe from Price, Utah the Utah State University Eastern Eagles.

Southpaw Matty Mitchell took the ball looking to extend his winning streak to three and extend his scoreless innings streak. Mitchell was on point all evening, allowing just one hit and punching out seven Eagles over 5 scoreless frames of work.

Southern Nevada's offense got the scoring started early, plating the first eight runs of the game. The Eagles rallied to score a five spot in innings 6-8, however it was not enough to overcome another double-digit scoring performance from the Coyotes offense. Nick "Chewy" Hernandez paced the offense with a game-high 3 RBI's while AJ Amelburu, Matt Wong and Hunter Heugly contributed with a pair of RBI's each.

CSN dropped USU-Eastern 13-5 to run its winning streak to 11 games and improve its overall record to 15-4.

Friday afternoon presented the premier matchup of the tournament when bitter rivals and preseason #1 and #2 in the SWAC conference, Salt Lake Community College Bruins and College of Southern Nevada Coyotes renewed acquaintances for the first time in 2018.

Amidst all the offense of the tournament, a pitching duel broke at Morse Stadium as these two rivals competed with the intensity of a May postseason game, not a Mid-February tournament meeting.

Former Green Valley Gator Matt Gilbertson was on the bump for the Coyotes and the freshmen righty turned in his most impressive pitching performance of his CSN career. Gilbertson fired eight shutout innings, allowing three hits and striking out eight Bruins in a "hard luck" no decision. Four pitchers helped Salt Lake achieve the same result as the game went into the bottom of 12^th inning scoreless.

With runners on the corners freshman AJ Amelburu laid down a perfect bunt single that plated Peyton Koopman to give CSN its first extra-inning walk-off victory of the season. Jordan Wyke earned his first victory of the season after 1.1 innings of no-hit baseball.

The Coyotes defeated the Bruins 1-0 to extend its winning streak to a dozen and improve the teams overall season record 16-4.

Friday evening's night cap featured Prairie Baseball Academy Dawgs and CSN for the final time this season.

After outscoring the Dawgs 27-3 in three previous victories, a fourth victory seemed like more of a formality then an actual question. Southpaw Nick Rupp got the start looking to remain undefeated and win his third game of 2018. Rupp dominated the Dawgs all night, surrendering just one run and striking out nine PBA hitters over five solid innings of work.

Herbie Good and Joey O'Brien broke out the heavy lumber to carry Southern Nevada's offense to double digit runs for the third time in four games. O'Brien and Good both went yard in the victory, producing three runs batted in apiece, including four hits and three runs scored.

Former Palo Verde Panther Tanner Lewis fanned four Dawgs in two shutout innings of work to secure the Coyotes thirteenth consecutive victory.

CSN defeated PBA 10-1 to improve to 17-4 in 2018.

Sophomore standout Ryan McDonald got the start in the final game of the tournament versus Colorado Northwestern Community College Spartans hoping to extend the teams winning streak and regain the team lead in victories. Ryan was in the zone all afternoon, surrendering just a pair of hits and catching four of the seven Spartans he struck out looking. McDonald tossed five scoreless frames and Buddy Pindel closed the show with two no-hit innings to secure the victory for McDonald.

The Coyotes offense took the suspense out of the game with a seven run bottom of the third inning that saw eleven batters come to the plate. Six of the nine Southern Nevada starting position players tallied at least one run batted in with freshmen middle-infielders AJ Amelburu and Jay DeSoto leading the team with a pair of RBI's each.

CSN crushed CNCC 9-0 to improve to 18-4 through 22 games and extend its season-best winning streak to 14 games.

Fans your Coyotes are off this week, but will be back in action March 9^th and 10^th to begin SWAC play versus the CNCC Spartans.

For game times and ticketing information log onto www.csncoyotes.com or follow us on Twitter @CSN_Baseball and Facebook CSNCoyotes.