Air Force baseball never recovered from an early hole on Friday night, and now it has a steep hill to climb in the Mountain West Tournament.

The Falcons fell to Washington State 5-1 in Mesa, Ariz., after the Cougars scored three in the first and two more in the second and Mountain West Pitcher of the Year Nick Lewis made it stand by carrying a shutout through 8 2/3 innings.

The Cougars move on to the semifinals of the double-elimination event, where they are now two victories away from claiming the title. The Falcons drop to the loser’s bracket, where they would need to reel off four consecutive wins to capture the final tournament title under the current league configuration.

Both of the teams that won on Friday – top-seeded San Diego State and Washington State, the No. 2 seed – will depart for the Pac-12 following the season.

The third-seeded Falcons will play No. 5 New Mexico at 10 a.m. Saturday. With a win, they would play again at 7 p.m. Any loss from this point forward in the tournament would end Air Force’s season.

Washington State had a two-run triple from Ryan Skjonsby in the first inning and a two-run home run from Gavin Roy in the second on Friday, while Air Force managed seven hits against Lewis, who gave up his first run with two outs in the ninth after striking out 11 with two walks. Mountain West Freshman of the Year Wyatt Hanoian reached base four times for the Falcons with a single and a walk and he was hit by a pair of pitches.

All five runs were charged to Air Force starting pitcher Jordan Watkins, who faced 12 batters in two innings.