April 26, 2001
THIS WEEK
Friday, April 27 vs. Utah 4:05 p.m.
Saturday, April 28 vs. Utah 4:05 p.m.
Sunday, April 29 vs. Utah 1:05 p.m.
NEXT WEEK
Tuesday, May 1 at Nevada, Reno 3:00 p.m.
Friday, May 4 vs. New Mexico 7:05 p.m.
Saturday, May 5 vs. New Mexico 5:05 p.m.
Sunday, May 6 vs. New Mexico 1:05 p.m.
UNLV PROBABLE STARTERS
Friday - Ryan Olson LHP
Saturday - Jared Bonnell RHP
Sunday - Courtney Hall RHP
ABOUT UTAH
Utah is in third place in the Mountain West Conference with a 10-11 record. The Utes split a three-game series with BYU last weekend, dropping the middle game 9-8, and winning the endcaps 8-7 and 18-10. Utah has won four of its last six games following a six-game conference losing skid.
Catcher/DH Chris Shelton has a 17-game hitting streak heading into the weekend series with UNLV.
The Utes are the conference leaders in team batting batting average (.318), slugging percentage (.532), on base percentage (.387), doubles (105), home runs (63) and total bases (835).
UNLV is 50-25 lifetime against the Utes after taking a single game earlier this season in Salt Lake City.
HUSTLIN' REBELS
UNLV split a three-game series with Air Force last weekend, dropping the first game 19-10, but coming back on Saturday to pick up a pair of wins, 9-3 and 12-3.
Joe Jacobitz led the Rebels offensively against the Falcons, going 7-for-14 (.500) with three doubles and three RBIs.
Garett Shitanishi continues to swing the bat well. He is now fifth in the conference with a .366 batting average.
Trent Kitsch and Brad Beasley each picked up a pair of homers over the weekend. Beasley now has six home runs on the season, while Kitsch knocked out his team-leading eleventh of the season.
LAST GAME AT UC-RIVERSIDE
The UNLV baseball team dropped an 8-2 decision to UC-Riverside in non-conference action on Wednesday. With the loss, the Rebels fall to 18-25. The Highlanders improve to 16-25.
UNLV used seven pitchers in the game, with starter Robbie Van the only Rebel to pitch more than 1.1 innings. Van pitched three innings with one run on four hits and four strikeouts.
Ben Scheinbaum (1-1) picked up the loss for the Rebels. He pitched one inning and gave up two unearned runs on two hits. Doug Thornton, Brad Maloff, Joe Maruffi, C.J. Martin and Donnie Watts also saw action on the mound.
UC-Riverside's Drew Murphy (2-0) earned the win. He pitched two scoreless innings with three hits and one strikeout.
David Trujillo led the Rebels offensively, going 2-for-4 with one RBI. The two-hit performance extends his hitting streak to a Mountain West Conference leading 18 games.
Joe Jacobitz, Trent Kitsch, Jason Reuss, Dan Price and James Nepa all added a single hit each.
TRUJILLO HITTING STREAK
Junior David Trujillo is currently riding a 18-game hitting streak. He picked up at least one hit in 24 of the last 25 games and 28 of the 35 games he has played this year.
Kevin Lofthus holds the UNLV record for the longest hitting streak at 34. Lofthus set the record in the 1989 season.
New Mexico's Scott Candelaria set the Mountain West Conference record for longest hitting streak with 28 games. His collegiate career ended before the streak did.
KITSCH RBIs
Trent Kitsch currently holds the second spot in the conference for RBIs with 52. He also shares the second spot in multiple-RBI games with 13.
Versus: Washington State (3,2), Lewis-Clark State (2,2), Kansas State (5), Clemson (2), Oregon State (4), Southern Utah (2), Utah (2,2), New Mexico (2,4), San Diego State (2), Air Force (4,2).
Kitsch is also third in the conference in home runs with eleven. BYU's Matt Carson leads the league with 16.
KITSCH - MLB CANADA PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Following UNLV's season-opening series against Washington State, Senior Trent Kitsch ( Kelowna, BC) was named MLB Canada's Player of the Week, as the top Canadian of the 405 currently playing baseball south of the border.
In the opener, Washington State pulled ahead on a grand slam in the top of the first inning. After the Rebels scored twice in the bottom half of the first, Kitsch hit a two-run triple in the third to bring UNLV within one at 5-4.
The Rebels put up a five-spot in the fifth, first a two-run homer, then a walk and a pair of hit-by-pitches loaded the bases. Kitsch then drew a bases-loaded walk for his third RBI of the game and the Rebels were 9-7 winners.
In the second game, Kitsch hit a scoring fly ball in the first to tie the game at 1-1 and three innings later Kitsch singled to centre for a run as the Rebels outlasted the Cougars for a 10-9 victory.
And in the series finale, the Rebels were 7-6 losers to Washington State, yet it wasn't for Kitsch's lack of hitting. The Cougars ran up a 7-0 lead before the Rebels and Kitsch went to work. Kitsch doubled and scored in the sixth. Kitsch picked up his second triple on the season in the eighth, knocking in a run. Kitsch went 2-for-4 with one RBI and two runs scored.
After the weekend Kitsch saw fourth in the conference with a .444 average, with six RBIs, tied for third - despite having played only three games.
Kitsch was a member of the 1997 World Junior championship bronze medalist Canadian Youth Team and was drafted in the 22nd round by the Colorado Rockies in 1997.
STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE
The tough 2001 schedule boasts competition against four teams that ranked in the top 25 at the end of the 2000 season. No. 7 Clemson, No. 8 Nebraska, No. 17 UCLA and No. 19 Penn State are stacked on the first half of the schedule as the Rebels prepared for the grind of their second season in the Mountain West Conference. UNLV also hosted a two-game series against the two-time defending NAIA National Champion Warriors of Lewis-Clark State.
AUTOMATIC BID
Twenty-nine conferences receive an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. 2001 marks the first season the Mountain West Conference will receive an automatic bid. The winner of the MWC Championships, held in San Diego May 16-19, will receive the automatic bid.
CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
The 2001 Mountain West Conference Baseball Championship will be hosted by San Diego State University in San Diego, Calif. All six Mountain West Conference teams will compete in the double-elimination tournament May 16-19. Seedings will be decided by regular season results in conference games.
All requests for media credentials for the Mountain West Conference Baseball Championship should be submitted in writing to Assistant Director of Communications Brett Lowder at the MWC office or SDSU Baseball Contact Dave Kuhn prior to the event.
ROD SOESBE
Rod Soesbe is in his 17th season at UNLV. On Sept. 10, 1996 he was named head coach, the fourth in UNLV baseball history. Soesbe spent 12 seasons as the top assistant to Fred Dallimore.
In the Summer of 1999, he served as an assistant coach for the USA Baseball National Team under Texas A&M head coach Mark Johnson.
The 2001 season is Soesbe's fifth as the head coach of the Hustlin' Rebels. Last season, he led the Rebels to a 24-33 record, 14-16 in the Mountain West Conference.
UNLV compiled a 43-17 record in 1996 and captured the Big West Tournament Championship with victories over nationally ranked UC-Santa Barbara, Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State. UNLV also posted the fourth highest batting average (.332) in school history that year and set single-season school records for most runs scored (550) and most runs batted in (500).
Soesbe came to UNLV in 1985 and served as the team's hitting instructor, working with the infielders and third base coach.
