March 11, 2000

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV baseball team dropped its third straight game overall and in Mountain West Conference play, falling to BYU, 9-8, at Earl E. Wilson Stadium on Saturday.

The Rebels (6-18, 0-3) held two leads in the game before allowing the Cougars (12-10, 3-0) to score three runs in the final three innings to capture the win.

UNLV jumped on top early, scoring a pair of runs in the first. Denny Seybert singled and scored and Tony DeMarco came home on a balk.

Seybert then drove in Michael Ford in the second after Ford led the inning off with a single.

BYU capitalized on two Rebel errors and a home run by Kainoa Obrey to take a 4-3 edge in the third, but UNLV scored for the third straight inning to knot the game at 4-4.

Rebels starter Justin Fairbanks allowed two earned runs to get by before finishing the fifth inning with UNLV down 6-4.

Five hits in the sixth inning propelled UNLV back into the lead as they scored four times. Cody Okuda singled to drive in two runs and later scored on a DeMarco hit to put the Rebs up, 8-6.

Nick Green's pinch hit double down the right field line pushed one runner in and another to third in the top of the seventh. The tying run came home shortly after on a sacrifice fly by Matt Carson, marking the third deadlock in the game.

Sean Noorda then sat down the next six Rebels, including four strikeouts, as the Cougar offense picked up the winning margin in the top of the eighth. A single and a wild pitch put Shane Belliston on second. Ty Haguewood then singled off C.J. Martin for the game-winning RBI.

Seybert finished the game with three hits and two runs scored to lead UNLV while Okuda and Nate Kaup both drove home two runs.

UNLV will hit the road for just the third time this season on Wednesday, March 15. The Rebels will play Southern Utah in a single game in St. George, Utah before continuing to Salt Lake City to battle Utah in a MWC series.