May 17, 2003

Box Score

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV baseball team dropped an 18-8 decision to Utah in the regular-season finale on Saturday afternoon. The loss drops the Rebels to 41-15, 24-6 in league play. The Utes improve to 23-30, 10-20 in league play.

Ben Scheinbaum (5-1) suffers the loss. He pitched only one inning, giving up three runs. Jason Price (4-1) picked up the win for the Utes. He gave up seven runs off 12 hits in 5.2 innings of work.

Stephen Ghutzman led the Rebels, going 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored.

Fernando Valenzuela went 2-for-5 with one RBI and now leads the team with a .356 batting average. He is hitting a team-high .383 in conference play, and finished the 56-game regular season without committing an error.

Ryan Ruiz also added a pair of hit in the ballgame.

With the regular season over, UNLV enters the MWC Championship as the No. 1 seed after three straight years as the No. 5 seed. The Rebels, currently ranked No. 15 in the latest Baseball America poll, take on No. 6 seed Air Force at 11 a.m. (MDT), Wednesday, May 21. UNLV leads the all-time series 43-13, including a 6-0 mark this year.