March 13, 2003
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UNLV PROBABLE PITCHERS
Friday: Matt Luca RHP
Saturday: Adam Lesko RHP
Sunday: Jake Vose LHP
AIR FORCE PROBABLE PITCHERS
Friday: Jesper Stubbendorff RHP
Saturday: Johnny Koegel RHP
Sunday: Paul VIgnola RHP
UNLV REBELS
The Rebels swept a three-game series with Memphis over the weekend, but dropped a mid-week contest to UC Irvine and moved to 13-7 on the season.
Over the weekend, UNLV got three outstanding performances on the mound from Matt Luca, Matt Wagner and Jake Vose. Luca threw four shutout innings with four hits and four strikeouts; Wagner threw 6.1 innings with two hits and six strikeouts; Vose threw six innings with two hits and nine strikeouts. The trio threw 16.1 shutout innings combined with 19 strikeouts and one walk.
After opening the season with a 10-3 record, the Rebels are now 3-4 in the month of March.
Pat Dobson snapped his 14-game hitting steak at UC Irvine after an 0-for-3 outing. He is now hitting .395 on the season.
As a team, the Rebels have 34 home runs this season and 12 different UNLV players have homered.
AIR FORCE FALCONS
The Falcons enter the weekend series with an 8-9 overall record and are 0-3 in Mountain West Conference play. Air Force lost a three-game series at New Mexico two weeks ago.
The Falcons took two-of-three games over Monmouth University last weekend, with each of their two wins coming with double-digit runs margins.
Air Force has the top team batting average in the conference at .380 (229-for-602) and has stolen 20 bases this season on 25 attempts for an impressive 80 percent success rate.
SERIES VS. AIR FORCE
UNLV holds a 34-14 lead in the series that began in 1970. Since joining the league, the Rebels are 10-1 vs. the Falcons at home.
INJURY UPDATE
Eric Nielsen missed two games against Memphis with a pulled hamstring, but was able to resume his duties in right field on Sunday.
David Seccombe left Saturday's game against Memphis in the second inning with a strain in his throwing elbow.
HITTING STREAKS
Brent Johnson has the longest hitting streak on the team at four games. Ryan Ruiz has the next longest streak at three games.
YES, HE IS
Rebel junior Fernando Valenzuela is the son of former major league pitcher Fernando Valenzuela.
Fernando Valenzuela Sr. began his professional career on September 15, 1980, with the Los Angeles Dodgers and played 17 years for six different teams.
REBEL BASEBALL, IT'S A HIT!
UC Irvine pitchers hit two Rebel batters on Tuesday, upping UNLV's season total to 48 hit batters. The total hit batsmen committed by UNLV and its opponents this season is 75.
Villanova pitcher James Russell set an NCAA record for hit batsmen in an inning during the Feb. 22 game. He hit five batters in 0.1 innings of work.
EARLY RECOGNITION
Junior RHP Robbie Van was named the No. 18 prospect in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League by Baseball America. League managers and professional scouts were polled for the list, which included the top 30 players from the summer circuit.
Baseball America began rating the best Cape Cod League prospects in 1990.
Excerpt From Baseball America on Robbie Van: As a lefthanded reliever, Van could be on an express route to the majors. He opened the summer on Yarmouth-Dennis as a fill-in player, and when the Red Sox ran out of roster spots he joined Orleans. Van throws a low-90s fastball and had the consensus best slider on the Cape.
BASEBALL AMERICA
Baseball America predicted UNLV will finish second in the Mountain West Conference this season, behind first place San Diego State.
Other preseason conference honors included Ryan Ruiz, Brent Johnson and Robbie Van on the preseason all-conference list. Van was also picked as the preseason MWC Pitcher of the Year.
Four of the five "top newcomer" picks belonged to the Rebels (Ryan Braun, Stephen Ghutzman, Fernando Valenzuela and Patrick Dobson).
VOSE NAMED MWC PITCHER OF THE WEEK - MARCH 10
Junior lefthander Jake Vose was named the Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Week on March 10. This is the first weekly honor for Vose.
Vose, from Las Vegas, struck out nine and walked one in six innings of work as the Rebels downed Memphis, 13-4. He scattered two hits in the game, and improved his record to 3-3 on the season.
JOHNSON NAMED MWC PLAYER OF THE WEEK - MARCH 3
Junior outfielder Brent Johnson was named the Mountain West Conference Player of the Week on Monday, March 3. Johnson is now a three-time award winner.
Johnson went 6-for-13 from the plate last week, while helping the Rebels to a 1-2 record against instate rival Nevada, Reno. He was 2-for-5 with a home run and a double, while driving in three runs in UNLV's 13-5 win over Nevada. He was 1-for-3 with a home run in a 14-6 loss to Nevada and closed out the series by going 3-for-4 with a homer in a 7-3 loss to the Wolf Pack.
For the week, Johnson hit .462 with three home runs and five RBI.
NIESEN NAMED MWC PLAYER OF THE WEEK - FEBRUARY 10
Eric Nielsen was named the Mountain West Conference Player of the Week after the Rebels' three-game sweep over College of Charletson.
Nielsen, from Las Vegas, Nev. (Silverado HS), posted an .833 batting average. In two games played, he went 5-for-6 from the plate with three doubles, two RBI and a home run.
FAB 50
Joe Wickman and Robbie Van were listed in the Baseball America Top 50 College Prospects by Class.
Wickman was listed at the No. 38 Sophomore and Van was listed as the No. 45 junior.
Wickman and Van were also listed as the fourth and fifth top prospects in the Mountain West Conference. Patrick Dobson rounded out the list as the No. 10 prospect in the conference.
TOP OF THE CONFERENCE
UNLV leads the Mountain West Conference in the following categories (March 5):
TEAMHome Runs 34Hit By Pitch 48Sac Flies 9Batters Struck Out 170Satters Struck Out Looking 53Runners Picked Off 7Triples Allowed 3Wild Pitches 23Hit Batters 27Caught Stealing By 10
INDIVIDUAL
Hit By Pitch (D'Angelo) 12Pitching Appearances (Braun) 9Wild Pitches (Vose) 9HIt Batters (Van) 7Intentional Walks Allowed (Guerra) 2
PICKED THIRD BY THE CONFERENCE
For the fourth straight year, San Diego State was picked to win the Mountain West Conference regular season baseball championship. In a vote of the six MWC head coaches, the Aztecs received five of six first-place votes, while New Mexico received one.
The Aztecs collected 25 points to capture the top spot in the poll. BYU earned 19 points to place second in the poll, followed by UNLV (17 points), Utah (12 points), New Mexico (11 points) and Air Force (six points).
After placing fifth in the MWC race three straight years, UNLV was picked third in this year's poll. The Rebels were 30-30 (13-17 MWC) overall last year under first-year head coach Jim Schlossnagle.
SCHLOSSNAGLE RADIO SHOW
UNLV baseball fans will have the opportunity to hear from head coach Jim Schlossnagle each Monday on the "Jim Schlossnagle Radio Show".
The half-hour radio show, featuring the Rebels' second-year head coach, will air each Monday at 6 p.m. on KSHP 1400AM. The weekly radio show will originate during the course of the regular season from Glory Days Grill at 10075 S. Eastern Avenue in Henderson.
AUTOMATIC BID
Twenty-nine conferences receive an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. 2001 marked the first season the Mountain West Conference received an automatic bid. The winner of the MWC Championships, held in Albuquerque, N.M. May 21-24, will receive the automatic bid.
CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
The 2003 Mountain West Conference Baseball Championship will be hosted by New Mexico in Albuquerque, N.M.. All six Mountain West Conference teams will compete in the double-elimination tournament May 21-24. Seedings will be decided by regular season results in conference games.
All requests for media credentials for the Mountain West Conference Baseball Championship should be submitted in writing to Assistant Director of Communications Ron Christian at the MWC office or New Mexico Baseball Contact Ron Gonzales prior to the event.
