April 24, 2002
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STORYLINE: The UNLV Rebel Softball team (23-31, 3-7) closes the home portion of its 2002 schedule this week, hosting Mountain West Conference opponents New Mexico (14-22-1, 6-5) and Colorado State (17-23, 4-7). The Rebels host the Lobos in an evening affair, beginning at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 26. Sunday's games will begin at 12 noon, with Senior Day ceremonies slated to begin at 11:30 a.m. Four Rebels seniors will be honored: Melissa Inouye, Geney Orris, Arica Painter and Nicole Truax. The first game of both doubleheaders will be broadcast in Las Vegas on KSHP 1400 AM and worldwide on unlvrebels.com, with Tim Neverett delivering the play-by-play.
ABOUT UNLV: The Rebels dropped two games to league rival Utah in their only action of the week on Sunday, but the Mountain West Conference declared the games as non-conference contests ... Regardless, the Rebels remain in sixth place in the league standings with six games remaining ... Geney Orris (.333/10/34) leads the team and ranks in the league's top four in hitting, home runs and RBI ... In the circle, Jackie Kerrigan has a 8-14 record, a 2.25 ERA and 113 strikeouts ... Head coach Shan McDonald is in her 16th season at the helm of the Rebel program, carrying a 483-447-2 (.519) mark.
LAST AT BAT: After getting snowed out last Friday and Saturday, the Rebels finally hit the diamond on Sunday, making up its twin bill with Utah. The Utes won both ends of a marathon day, taking the opener 11-10 in their last at bat before squeaking out a 6-5 win in 11 innings in the nightcap. Because the games were played two days later that their originally scheduled date, conference by-laws mandate that the results not be reflected in either team's league record nor affect either team's rank. Last Saturday's scheduled games against BYU will not be made up.
ABOUT NEW MEXICO: New Mexico (14-22-1, 6-5) played just one game last week, topping Colorado State 7-1 before snow forced a cancellation in the second game ... UNM sits in third place in the league standings, 2.5 games ahead of the Rebels ... The Lobos are led in hitting by Kelly Glass (.348/0/6) and in pitching by Hayley Punter (8-9, 5.23) ... Head coach Susan Craig is 668-579-2 in her 26th year at New Mexico ... New Mexico leads the all-time series, 15-11, including a split earlier this year ... Only 12 days will have elapsed since the two teams tangled on April 14.
ABOUT COLORADO STATE: Colorado State (17-23, 4-7) currently ranks fourth in the league, just one-half of a game ahead of UNLV ... The Rams are led in hitting by Amanda Kocis (.325/0/15) and in pitching by Melanie Mahoney (10-9, 1.89) ... Mary Yori owns a 27-60 record in her second year at the CSU and an overall mark of 486-218 in her 13th year ... The Rams lead the series, 16-11.
RANKED OPPONENTS: UNLV played 16 games against 13 different opponents that received votes in the NFCA Coaches Poll this season. They are:
Opponent Date Results Rank Then Rank Now Wisconsin Feb. 8 L, 3-0 29 NR Nebraska Feb. 8 L, 1-0 12 4 Massachusetts Feb. 9 W, 6-4 24 NR California Feb. 9 L, 5-0 5 8 Texas A&M Feb. 10 L, 6-2 NR 24 Alabama Feb. 15 L, 8-2 13 15 Pacific Feb. 23 L, 4-3 12 17 DePaul Feb. 23 L, 3-2 15 16 DePaul Feb. 24 L, 3-1 15 16 Pacific Feb. 24 L, 5-1 12 17 Stanford March 1 L, 8-0 3 3 Washington March 1 L, 4-0 12 10 Notre Dame March 10 W, 2-1 29 NR Oregon State March 27 L, 1-0 14 14 San Diego State April 6 L, 3-0 NR NR San Diego State April 6 L, 1-0 NR NR
GOING AND GOING AND GOING: UNLV's doubleheader against Utah last Sunday was the Rebs' longest day of the year. After playing the first 52 games on its schedule in under three hours, the day's opener was pushed over the three-hour mark as both teams combined for 21 runs and 23 hits. But 3:02 was a sprint compared to the nightcap. Down 4-1, Geney Orris hit a three-run home run in the sixth to knot the score and force the Rebels to their fourth extra-inning game of the year. Without the benefit of the international tie-breaker rule for conference games, Utah and UNLV played three innings before Orris broke the monotony with her second consecutive home run, an opposite field solo shot to give the Rebs their first lead. As Utah luck would have it, the Utes also got a solo homer in the bottom of the inning and came back in the 11th to score the game-winner, ending the marathon day seven hours after it began.
OH, NO, NOT 1-0: Five times this year and three times on the Rebels' spring break trip through Oregon did the final score reflect a 1-0 victory for UNLV's opponent. In her collegiate debut back on Feb. 8, Jackie Kerrigan lost a 1-0 decision to then-No. 12 Nebraska. Kerrigan was victimized a second time at Portland State after the Vikings stole a run on a seeing-eye RBI single. Two days later, Nicole Truax was superbly sharp in holding Oregon to three hits, but the Ducks managed two of them in the same inning and used a pair of sacrifices to score the game's only run. Finally, the Rebels' looked as if they had shed the jinx after battling to a scoreless tie at 14th-ranked Oregon State through five innings. But a disputable ball-four call with the bases loaded forced Geney Orris to suffer a three-hit, 1-0 loss of her own. Most recently, Kerrigan was shocked again after San Diego State made a first-inning run stand up for a victory.
IN A PINCH: When the game is on the line, head coach Shan McDonald looks no further down the dugout than to sophomore Wendy Godwin. Coming off the bench to hit 23 times this year, Godwin has delivered seven key hits, five of them in the seventh inning. Her last two have both overcome an opponent lead. Against Utah, she entered the game in the sixth inning with the Rebels down 8-5 and the bases loaded. Facing an 0-2 count, she lifted the next pitch over the left centerfield fence for a grand slam, her first career home run. That shot came just one week after her sixth-inning double at New Mexico that drove in two runs to erase a 4-3 deficit and put the Rebels up 5-4 in a game they would go on to win. Against Saint Mary's, she began a seventh-inning rally that broke a 3-3 tie, and she drove in the Rebels' only run in a 3-1 loss to DePaul. For the season, Godwin is hitting .304 (7-for-23) in pinch hitting situations.
PINCH 2: When it's a key run McDonald wants, she calls on Jennie Whitman, who has scored six times and is a perfect 4-for-4 in stolen bases in 19 pinch running situations this year.
THE YOUTH OF THE NATION: The Rebels' youth have been thrown into the fire this season as the team's eight freshmen make up nearly one-half of the roster ... Aside from redshirt freshman Bianca Gonzales, who tore her ACL before the season began, all have contributed to the Rebs' efforts as well ... Only four players have played in all 54 games this year, and one of them is freshman Morgan Bostwick, who has started at first, second and short ... Pauline Glenn is an all-conference candidate who has missed only one start at third base and ranks among the team leaders in home runs, RBI, walks, on-base percentage and runs scored ... Amber Campbell has earned 43 starts at shortstop ... Walk-ons Melissa Bruechert, Kira Enlow and Jennie Whitman have also chipped in, supplying depth in key pinch hitting and pinch running roles ... And perhaps the most significant freshman contribution has come from pitcher Jackie Kerrigan, who leads the Rebel staff in wins, appearances, innings, complete games, strikeouts and ERA.
JACKIE THE K: Speaking of Kerrigan, the touted freshman has already built a pretty impressive trophy case in just two months at UNLV. She claimed both all-tournament honors and MWC Pitcher of the Week honors after leading UNLV to a 4-2 record at the Capital Classic in mid-March. The Eugene, Ore., native went 3-1, including a one-hit shutout of Sacramento State and a 4-3 nine-inning loss to Miami (Ohio). It was the second shutout of the year for the fab freshman after a 1-0 win over Utah State. Kerrigan has been just as solid against some of the country's best. She knocked off then-No. 29 Notre Dame, 2-1, on March 10 and dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker to Nebraska, now ranked fourth nationally. At the UNLV Softball Classic, she struck out 13 in her first collegiate win over Kansas, and then closed a solid performance by Nicole Truax against Texas Tech to pick up her first career save. Just hours later, Kerrigan came to the rescue a second time, holding Central Michigan down for her second win. In the tourney finale, she shut the door on Cal Poly for her second save in as many days, earning her first MWC Pitcher of the Week award.
TRIPLE PLAY: When the Rebels defeated IUPUI, Sacramento State and Middle Tennessee on March 15 at the Capital Classic, it was just the 10th tripleheader in school history and only the second time that UNLV escaped the day unblemished. At the 1990 UNLV Spring Fling, the Rebels dumped Sac State, Oregon State and Southwest Texas State on March 2. The Rebels also boast a three-win day on April 13, 1996 when a previously suspended game against San Jose State was played out before a scheduled doubleheader. UNLV won the resumed game, 6-5 in 10 innings before a 5-0, 14-6 sweep of the slated twin bill.
