May 1, 2002
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STORYLINE: Three games remain on the regular season schedule for the UNLV Softball team (27-31, 7-7). The Rebels first head to Riverside, Calif., on Friday, May 3 to face UC Riverside (11-41) in a non-conference game for the third time this year. A day later, the Rebels continue on to San Diego where they face MWC leader San Diego State (38-20-1, 13-3) in a conference doubleheader at 12 noon.
ABOUT UNLV: The Rebels leapt from the bottom of the league standings to third place after taking four straight league games from New Mexico and Colorado State... UNLV could climb as high as second in the standings and claim the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Mountain West Conference Tournament with a sweep over the Aztecs and some help from Utah's opponent ... Geney Orris (.331/12/40) leads the team and ranks among the league's leaders in hitting, home runs and RBI ... In the circle, Jackie Kerrigan has a 9-14 record, a 2.19 ERA and 122 strikeouts ... Head coach Shan McDonald is in her 16th season at the helm of the Rebel program, carrying a 487-447-2 (.521) mark.
LAST AT BAT: After going nearly three years without a MWC doubleheader sweep, the Rebels earned two in the same weekend. First, Kacey Ellis produced a one-out seventh-inning single to score the game winner in the opener with New Mexico for a 6-5 victory. Then Pauline Glenn broke a 1-1 tie with a three-run homer that led to a 4-2 win in the late game. UNLV overcame a 3-0 deficit in its first game with Colorado State, exploding for 10 runs in two innings for a 10-4 win. The Rebels closed the weekend in exciting fashion, scoring once in the sixth to tie and once in the seventh to win, 2-1, and complete the four-game weekend sweep.
ABOUT UC RIVERSIDE: UC Riverside (11-41) has lost 10 of 11 after getting swept by Cal State Fullerton in a three-game series last weekend ... The Highlanders are led in hitting by Kelly Glass (.276/2/19) and in pitching by Jenell Jackson (5-13, 2.21) ... Head coach and former Rebel softball player Rachel Miller-Reif is 34-121-1 in her third year at UCR ... UNLV leads the all-time series, 9-3, including a sweep of the doubleheader played on April 3.
ABOUT SAN DIEGO STATE: San Diego State (38-20-1/13-3) leads the Mountain West Conference ... The Aztecs are led in hitting by Tiffany Goudy (.361/2/35) and in pitching by Bre DeSanta (17-8, 1.08) ... Kathy Van Wyk owns a 192-161-2 record in her fifth year at SDSU ... The Rebels lead the series, 24-23, despite losing both games of the teams' first meeting on April 6.
BREAK OUT THE BROOMS: After nearly completing its third year in the Mountain West Conference without a sweep of a league doubleheader, UNLV swept two opponents in the same weekend. The last conference doubleheader the Rebels swept came at the end of the 1999 season when they took two from then-WAC rival Utah. By virtue of the weekend's sweeps, UNLV climbed from sixth to third place in the league standings.
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 25 times this year, Godwin has delivered eight key hits, six of them in the seventh inning. Her last three have each helped the Rebels to overcome an opponent lead. In her most recent effort, Godwin singled with a runner at third in the bottom of the seventh to break a 1-1 tie against Colorado State and lead the Rebels to their fourth straight win. 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 .320 (8-for-25) in pinch hitting situations.
PINCH 2: When it's a key run McDonald wants, she calls on Jennie Whitman, who has scored eight times and is a perfect 4-for-4 in stolen bases in 22 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 58 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 45 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 three 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.
