March 19, 2003

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UNLV PROBABLE PITCHERS
Thursday: Matt Luca RHP
Friday: Robbie Van LHP
Saturday: Jake Vose LHP

BYU PROBABLE PITCHERS
Thursday: Jeff Mousser RHP
Friday: Paul Jacinto RHP
Saturday: Ken Gravley LHP

UNLV REBELS

The Rebels swept the conference-opening three-game series with Air Force over the weekend and picked up a 13-8 win over Pepperdine on Tuesday. UNLV's record now stands at 17-7 overall, 3-0 in Mountain West Confernce play.

Eric Nielsen continues to lead the team with a .413 (26-for-63) batting average. With six home runs and six doubles, Nielsen's season slugging percentage is a team-high .794.

Peter White hit .600 (6-for-10) over the last three games. He has not struck out or committed an error in that time.

Against Pepperdine, Jason Guerra picked up his third save of the season. He now has a 2.13 ERA in ten appearances.

As a team, the Rebels have 42 home runs this season from 11 different players. Three players, Nielsen, Fernando Valenzuela and Ryan Ruiz have six homers each. Robert VanKirk leads the team with seven.

BYU COUGARS

BYU has lost four of its last five games and enters the three-game series with a 6-12 record. Thursday's game marks the home opener for the Cougars.

Jake Stubblefield has a 12-game hitting streak heading into the weekend contests. Kainoa Obrey and Ranger Wiens also have eight-game streaks.

Senior outfielder Doug Jackson broke the BYU career triples record last weekend at New Mexico. He now has 20 career triples.

SERIES VS. BYU

BYU holds a slim 49-48 series lead. The Cougars took seven of the eight meetings last season, including two wins in the Mountain West Conference Tournament.

INJURY UPDATE

David Seccombe left Saturday's game against Memphis in the second inning with a strain in his throwing elbow and did not play the following weekend against Air Force.

HITTING STREAKS

Brent Johnson has the longest hitting streak on the team at eight games. Robert VanKirk has the next longest streak at four 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!

Pepperdine pitchers hit one Rebel batter on Tuesday, upping UNLV's season total to 54 hit batters. The total hit batsmen committed by UNLV and its opponents this season is 87.

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.

NIELSEN 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 18):

TEAMHit By Pitch                     53Sac Flies                        13Steal Attempts                   43Batters Struckout Looking By     66Runners Picked Off By            7Wild Pitches                     29Fielding Percentage              .967
INDIVIDUALHit By Pitch (D'Angelo)          12Caught Stealing (D'Angelo)       3

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.

www.UNLVREBELS.com

The six-year-old UNLV athletics website www.unlvrebels.com was re-launched in March 13, 2003 with an updated look and additional features to best serve fans and media interested in the Rebels.

Originally launched in November 1997, www.unlvrebels.com has steadily expanded in both content and usership and now boasts a new graphic design that elevates it to be among the leaders in the industry.

As one of more than 100 universities that make up membership of OCSN (Official College Sports Network), which is owned by Student Advantage, Inc., UNLV was chosen to be the first such site to feature a full-screen display that allows for a cleaner, brighter and more sophisticated design.

Designed for use by alumni, students, fans and media, the Rebels' home on the Internet features in-depth, updated information 24 hours a day. The site features rosters, records, historical information and biographical sketches of players and coaches in addition to any and all results since the website first premiered.