May 18, 2002

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV baseball team dropped an 8-5 decision to San Diego State on Saturday afternoon at Earl E. Wilson Stadium. The loss secured a fifth place finish in the conference regular season standings and pits the Rebels against Utah in the first round of the Mountain West Conference Tournament.

The MWC Tournament begins on Wednesday, May 22 in Provo, Utah. UNLV and Utah play the middle game during the first day of action at 2 p.m. PST. Top seeded San Diego State will take on New Mexico in the first game, with BYU and Air Force matching up in the evening game.

With the loss, the Rebels fall to an even 28-28 on the season, 13-17 the MWC. The Aztecs improve to 40-21, 20-10 in league play.

Rebel starter Giovanni Pupo (2-4) picked up the loss against San Diego State. He pitched 3.1 innings, giving up five runs on five hits with five strikeouts.

SDSU's Joe Carque (6-3) earned the win. He went 4.1 innings, giving up four runs on eight hits. Five Rebels contributed a pair of hits each in the loss. Freshman Joe Wickman went 2-for-3 with an RBI. His regular season batting average of .450 earns him the conference batting title. He is hitting .490 in conference play.

Brent Johnson went 2-for-5 with one RBI and one run scored. He finished the regular season with 28 doubles, which ties the UNLV single season record. He still has a minimum of two tournament games to call the record his own.

Jason Reuss finished the game 2-for-4 with one RBI and two runs scored. Brent Johnson and David Trujillo also added a pair of hits in the game.