May 14, 2003
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UNLV PROBABLE PITCHERS
Thursday: Robbie Van LHP
Friday: Jake Vose LHP
Saturday: TBA
UTAH PROBABLE PITCHERS
Thursday: Clay Westmoreland RHP
Friday: Doug Mackay RHP
Saturday: Jason Price LHP
UNLV REBELSa
UNLV (39-14, 22-5 MWC) clinched the regular-season Mountain West Conference Championship with a 2-1 series victory over New Mexico last weekend. The Rebels will enter the conference tournament as the No. 1 seed and face Air Force in the opening round.
UNLV moved to No. 15 in the latest Baseball America poll after a 2-1 series victory at San Diego State. The Rebels were last ranked during the 1996 season. UNLV's highest-ever ranking came during the 1981 season when they were ranked No. 12 by Collegiate Baseball Magazine.
The Rebels have tied and will set a MWC record for most conference wins if they win just one of their remaining three games. New Mexico won 22 conference games in 2000.
The Rebels are enjoying their best performance in a conference race in school history. The Rebels posted their best finish in league play in the Big West in 1996 at second place (14-7), just one game out of first.
Brent Johnson maintained his position at the top of the offensive production list. He is now hitting .360 (81-for-225) with six home runs and 16 doubles. Fernando Valenzuela leads the team with 64 RBI and is hitting .354 (69-for-195) for the season. He leads the team in conference play with a .382 (39-for-102) average.
Offensive production is spread evenly through the team this season, with seven players driving in 30+ runs and eight players hitting .300 or better. UNLV has outscored its opponents 460-331 this season.
As a team, the Rebels have 74 home runs from 12 different players. Fernando Valenzuela leads the team lead with 12.
UNLV has nearly doubled the home run production of its opponents, hitting 74 and giving up only 40.
UTAH UTES
Utah enters the series at 22-28 overall, 9-18 in league play. The Utes will enter next week's MWC Championship as the fifth seed.
Utah sophomore Clay Westmoreland posted his first career shutout as the Utes blanked Air Force 7-0. Overall, the Utah pitching staff has allowed the fewest home runs in the league this year (30).
As a team, the Utes are out-hitting opponents .307 to .301. Sophomore Matt Ciaramella leads the team with a .356 batting average, including .427 in conference games.
SERIES VS. UTAH
Utah holds a 55-28 advantage in the series. UNLV took two of three earlier this season in Salt Lake.
Patrick Dobson went 6-for-12 (.500) against the Utes earlier this season. Jake Vose and Ben Scheinbaum both picked up wins on the mound. Vose threw 7.0 innings, giving up only one run and striking out seven in Sunday's 13-5 series victory.
INJURY UPDATE
Matt Luca left Saturday's game against New Mexico with injury to his throwing arm. He has been diagnosed with tendenitis and his availablility for this Utah series is unclear.
Patrick Dobson is suffering an abdominal strain and missed all three games at New Mexico. He is expected to play this weekend against Utah.
HITTING STREAKS
Brent Johnson has the longest active hitting steak on the team at eight games. Four other players bring three-game streaks into the weekend series.
PERFECTION
Fernando Valenzuela has yet to make an error at first base this season. In 409 chances and 34 double plays, he continues to sport a 1.000 fielding percentage. He has 327 more chances than any other errorless player in the conference.
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.
Junior Patrick Dobson is the son of actor Kevin Dobson. Kevin had a five-year run on Kojak, playing Telly Savalas' assistant Detective Bobby Crocker.
In 1982, Dobson launched his longest series-TV stint in the role of attorney M. Patrick McKenzie on the prime-time serial Knots Landing.
NEW CAREER DOUBLES LEADER
Junior third baseman Brent Johnson hit a pair of doubles against San Diego State on Sunday, giving him 16 on the season and 66 in his three-year career. His total ties the school record for career doubles set by Bill Max, who played from 1978-81.
REBEL BASEBALL, IT'S A HIT!
San Diego State pitchers hit four Rebels over the weekend, upping UNLV's season total to 95 hit batters. The total hit batsmen committed by UNLV and its opponents this season is 156.
D'Angelo has been hit a conference-high 18 times this season and now shares the single season school record with John Cruz (2000).
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.
THE RPI RANKINGS
UNLV leads the MWC at No. 43 in the Boyd's World RPI rankings as of May 5, followed by New Mexico at No. 62.
As a conference, the MWC is ranked 14th. Overall this season, the Mountain West has posted a .500 or better record vs. six of the top 12 conferences in the RPI rankings (the MWC has not played the SEC, ACC or Atlantic Sun).
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).
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.
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.
MWC TOURNAMENT MAKES TELEVISION DEBUT
The Mountain West Conference and College Sports Television (www.cstv.com), the first 24-hour college sports network, have reached an agreement to televise live selected games of the 2003 MWC Baseball Championship, to be held May 21-24 at Isotopes Park in Albuquerque, N.M.
The television venture for Mountain West baseball is the first in the history of the conference and the first with CSTV. Two second-round conference tournament games will be televised live on CSTV on Thursday, May 22 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. (MST). A recap of that day's 11 a.m. (MST) game, with highlights, will air on CSTV from 2:30-3 p.m. (MST). CSTV is currently available to a national audience via DirecTV on channel 610.
"We are pleased to have this opportunity to showcase the quality of Mountain West Conference baseball to a national audience," said Craig Thompson, MWC Commissioner. "This is also a significant first step in our developing relationship with CSTV."
The Mountain West Conference is in the midst of one of its most successful baseball seasons. MWC leader UNLV is ranked 18th in the latest Baseball America poll, and overall, the league has a 75-64 non-conference record, including victories over seven ranked teams.
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.
