May 7, 2002
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STORYLINE: The UNLV Softball team (29-32, 8-8), after defeating league champ San Diego State, 2-1, in the regular season finale for both teams, clinched its best conference finish in six years. The Rebels claimed third place and begin play in the 2002 Mountain West Conference Softball Championship against No. 6 seed Colorado State (17-31, 4-15) on Thursday, May 9, at 11:30 a.m., at BYU's Gail Miller Field in Provo, Utah. UNLV is guaranteed at least two games in the double-elimination tournament, and could play a second game on Thursday against No. 2 Utah (26-33, 10-4) with a win in the opener. Should the Rebels lose to CSU, they would play their second game at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, May 10.
ABOUT UNLV: The Rebels enter the tournament as one of the league's hottest teams, having won six of seven to close the regular season. UNLV leapt from the bottom of the league standings to third place after taking four straight league games at home from New Mexico and Colorado State before pulling off the final necessary victory at San Diego State ... The third place finish marks the programs best conference showing since tying for second place in the 1996 Big West Conference race ... Designated player Geney Orris (.326/13/42) leads the team and ranks among the league's leaders in hitting, home runs and RBI ... The senior star also leads the pitching staff in wins (9-7, 2.54) while freshman Jackie Kerrigan (9-14, 2.16) has a team-best ERA and 122 strikeouts ... Head coach Shan McDonald is in her 16th season at the helm of the Rebel program, carrying a 489-448-2 (.522) mark.
LAST AT BAT: The Rebels took two of three games in the final week of the season. A solo home run by Arica Painter and a solid pitching performance by Kacey Ellis sparked the Rebels past UC Riverside for the third time this season, 6-1. But the key games were against league-champ San Diego State. After dropping the opener, 6-1, the Rebs needed a victory in the nightcap to secure third place in the league standings. Geney Orris' 14th double of the year set up a sac fly by Melissa Inouye for the Rebels' first run, but it was Pauline Glenn's sixth-inning home run that won the contest, 2-1. Orris gave up just three hits in five innings, and Jackie Kerrigan was nearly perfect in picking up her third save of the year.
ABOUT COLORADO STATE: Colorado State (17-31, 4-15) has not won since blasting a three-run homer for a 3-2 comeback win over UNLV on April 12 ... The Rams have lost 11 straight since, including a pair at Eller Media Stadium on April 28 that gave the Rebels a 3-1 edge in the season series ... The Rams are led in hitting by Ricki Walker (.311/4/21) and in pitching by Melanie Maloney (10-12, 2.55) ... Mary Yori is 27-68 in her second season at CSU, but owns a career record of 486-226 in 12 years as a coach ... The Rebels cut CSU's lead in the series to 16-13 by taking three of four this year.
ABOUT UTAH: To make a championship run, the Rebels must get past rival Utah (26-33, 10-4) ... Although UNLV split two games with the Utes in league play, a pair of disheartening one-run losses on April 21 in Salt Lake City were declared non-conference games by the Mountain West ... The Utes are led in hitting by Molly McLean (.340/5/27) and in pitching by Jen Pursell (15-16, 3.11) ... Mona Stevens carries a 213-147-1 record in her sixth year at Utah ... With three victories in the teams' four meetings this year, the Utes improved their lead in the series to 27-19.
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.
GOING AND GOING AND GOING: UNLV's doubleheader against Utah on April 21 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 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 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 on April 6.
ORRIS FOR US: Senior pitcher and designated player Geney Orris has turned in one of the top seasons in the Mountain West Conference and should be a shoo-in for league honors. The Brea, Calif., righty won her ninth game of the year when she knocked off San Diego State in the season finale. While her statistics in the circle look respectable, they are no indication of her performance in big games. She defeated then-No. 24 Massachusetts on Feb. 9 and went on to claim MWC Pitcher of the Week honors for her efforts. Perhaps her sharpest outing of the year came in a three-hit, 1-0 loss at No. 14 Oregon State. Since league play has begun, she has been overpowering, rolling to a 5-1 record. And while highly effective in her 21 pitching appearances, the super senior's bat has not stepped out of the lineup all year. Her 13 home runs this season rank fifth on the school's single-season record list, as do her 42 RBI and 14 doubles. For her career, she has belted 32 round-trippers, the third-best total in school history.
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. She was nearly perfect in finishing off San Diego State in the regular season finale for her third save of the year and needs just one more finish to tie the school's single-season record.
FLYIN' HAWAIIAN: Senior catcher Melissa Inouye found her bat down the stretch of the season, helping lead the Rebels to six wins in their final seven games ... When San Diego State held her to an 0-for-3 performance at the plate in the regular season finale, it ended a 12-game hitting streak, the team's longest of the season. Over that stretch, the Mililani, Hawaii, product batted a team-best .405 (15-for-37) with four doubles and four RBI and lifted her season average more than 50 points, from .178 to .229.
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 61 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 48 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.
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 freshman Jennie Whitman, who has scored eight times and is a perfect 4-for-4 in stolen bases in 22 pinch running situations this year.
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.
