Box Score

DAVIS, Calif. -- Air Force right-hander Griffin Jax struck out 12 in a complete-game two-hitter, allowing just a pair of unearned runs to help lift the Falcons to a 5-2 win and a series victory over host UC Davis on Saturday afternoon at Dobbins Stadium.

The Aggies moved to 6-12 overall with the defeat, posting single runs in the third and seventh innings after Air Force put up four runs in the first. The Falcons improved to 12-5 overall on the year with the win.

Senior right-hander Nat Hamby (1-1) took the loss for UC Davis, allowing four earned on 11 hits over 5.1 innings of work, but tied his season high with seven strikeouts accomplished against Utah Valley (Feb. 27) and Arizona State (March 13) earlier this year. Hamby settled down after the rough first frame, allowing just five hits and an unearned run over the next 4.1 innings of work to keep the Aggies in it.

Freshman left-hander Chris Brown then entered in relief with the bases loaded in the sixth and shut down the Falcons, retiring all 11 batters that he faced on just 27 pitches -- 22 of those for strikes. It was the longest relief outing of the season for Brown, who previously went three innings out of the bullpen against Portland on Feb. 20, and his third-longest overall following starts of four and five innings against Stanford (Feb. 22) and San Francisco (March 1), respectively.

Jax (5-1), who threw 121 pitches, 89 of those for strikes, allowed just seven base runners on the day en route to the win, retiring seven straight hitters on two occasions, and striking out at least two batters in four of his nine innings -- including the side twice in the fourth and seventh.

Six of the first seven hitters reached on singles to lead-off the game for the Falcons, producing an early 4-0 lead, before the Aggies were able to crack onto the scoreboard in the third. Freshman Alex Roeser reached on a fielder's choice and went all the way to third then classmate Cameron Briggs' ground ball was thrown away, putting runners on the corners with one out.

Senior Tanner Bily cashed in the Air Force mistake, rolling a single through the right side for the Aggies' first hit of the day to make it 4-1. A sacrifice fly by Bradley Haslam in the sixth rebuilt the Falcons' lead back to four runs, but UC Davis took advantage of back-to-back errors in the seventh to get the run back.

Jacob Thomas reached on a fielding error with two outs and came around to score from second base on a throwing error on a ground ball by Roeser to make it 5-2, but that would be as close as the Aggies would get as Jax retired the final seven UC Davis hitters in order to close out the game.

Bily's single extended his hitting streak to four games and allowed him to reach base safely for the ninth consecutive game -- tying teammate Alex Aguiar for the longest such streak on the team this season.

Four Falcons finished with at least two hits as seven of the nine hitters in the starting lineup finished with at least one hit on the day.

UC Davis wraps-up a five-game homestand on Tuesday (March 29) at 2:30 p.m. against Nevada at Dobbins Stadium before opening Big West Conference play on the road, taking on UC Riverside in a three-game series in Southern California on April 1-3. Game times in Riverside are scheduled for 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Air Force 5, UC Davis 2 (Mar 26, 2016 at Davis, Calif.)
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Air Force........... 400 001 000 - 5 11 3 (12-5)
UC Davis............ 001 000 100 - 2 2 2 (6-12)
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Pitchers: Air Force - JAX, Griffin and WILKIE, Travis. UC Davis - Hamby, Nat; Brown, Chris (6)
and Denholm, Logan.
Win-JAX, Griffin(5-1) Loss- Hamby, Nat (1-1) T-2:17 A-567
Weather: sunny, wispy clouds