March 12, 2002

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV baseball team dropped a pair of games to BYU on Tuesday, 8-3 and 13-7. The losses drop the Rebels to 10-13 on the season, 0-3 in Mountain West Conference play. BYU improves to 8-11, 3-0 in league play.

The Cougars jumped out to an early lead in the first game on a five-run third inning, which they parlayed into an 8-3 victory. The second game followed a similar script with BYU posting nine runs in the fourth inning en route to the 13-7 final.

"The big innings really hurt us," said UNLV head coach Jim Schlossnagle. "We played great defense today and even out-hit them in the second game. We just couldn't match their offense with men in scoring position."

The Rebels stranded 18 men on base in the two games.

Giovanni Pupo (1-2) picked up the loss in the first game. He pitched 2.2 innings, giving up five runs on seven hits. Robbie Van (1-4) earned the loss in the second game. He pitched 3.1 innings, giving up nine runs on seven hits.

BYU's Jeff Mousser (3-1) and Ryan Adams (1-3) earned the wins for the Cougars.

The Rebels managed only four hits in the first contest. Brent Johnson, Eric Nielsen and Joe Wickman each contributed a hit and drove in a run. David Trujillo finished 1-for-3 with a run scored.

UNLV's offense picked up in the second game. Tony Schuler finished the game 3-for-4 with three RBIs and one run scored. He also rounded the bags for his first triple of the season.

Johnson, Trujillo, Eric Nielsen and Ryan Ruiz all added a pair of hits.

The early weekday series with BYU gives the Rebels 10 days to prepare for their next series with Utah. The first game is set for Friday, March 22 at 6:30 p.m.