May 9, 2003

SAN DIEGO - With her back against the wall, sophomore Pauline Glenn hit a three-run homer with two outs in the top of the seventh inning to push the UNLV softball team past New Mexico, 3-1, in an elimination game at the Mountain West Conference Championship at SDSU Field on Friday.

Trailing 1-0 heading into the final inning, the Rebels (21-38) put two runners aboard with two outs before Glenn socked her sixth homer of the year on an 0-1 pitch off Lobo starter Amy Dumas. Singles in the inning by Kacey Ellis and Jacqueline Kerrigan set the stage for Glenn, accounting for three of the Rebels' five hits on the day.

Once UNLV took its first lead, Kerrigan made it stand up by retiring the Lobos in order in the bottom of the seventh. She picked up her 16th victory of the year in a complete-game six-hitter.

The game began nearly two hours late after the Lobos (25-37-1) had to resume a suspended game from Thursday night. In Thursday's final game of the day, New Mexico and host San Diego State battled to a 3-3 tie when darkness forced the game to be suspended after seven innings. The two teams resumed play at 9:00 a.m. Friday morning and played another seven innings before the Aztecs pushed the winning run across in the bottom of the 14th inning.

With the victory, the Rebels advance to the next round where they will face second-seeded Colorado State at approximately 4:00 p.m. Friday. UNLV must defeat the unbeaten Rams twice to advance to the championship game of the double-elimination tournament. Should UNLV win Friday night's game, the two would meet again on Saturday morning. A Colorado State victory would eliminate UNLV and end the Rebels' season.