April 25, 2004
Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The UNLV softball team dropped two games against Mountain West Conference foe New Mexico on Sunday, falling 6-2 and 3-0 at Lobo Field.
The Rebels (22-31, 4-10) have lost eight straight MWC games since sweeping the same Lobos (28-26, 3-8) at Eller Media Stadium on April 9.
Playing on their Senior Day, the Lobos opened the day in strong fashion behind the arm of Iraina Ogas (9-6). Ogas shut down the Rebel offense, carrying a no-hitter into the fifth inning and a shutout into the seventh. She allowed just four hits in the game.
Senior Kacey Ellis (2-9) earned the start for the Rebels, whose pitching staff was thinned by an injury to ace Jacqueline Kerrigan. Ellis was touched most in the third, when the Lobos sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four runs.
With a comfortable lead, Ogas cruised. She retired 15 of the first 17 batters she faced, allowing Lisa Sampson to reach on a hit by pitch in the first and Brittney Hillyer to draw a walk in the third.
The drama was ruined with one out in the fifth when Pauline Glenn drove a sharp ground ball up the middle for an unquestionable single. And aside from breaking up the no-hitter, it also set up the Rebels' best scoring opportunity to that point. Hillyer reached first on a fielding error, pushing Glenn to second. But Ogas beared down, striking out Amber Campbell and forcing Bridget Byrne into a ground ball to short to end the threat.
UNLV finally broke up the shutout in the final inning. Hillyer hit a one-out single to center and scored from first on a double down the line by Campbell. Campbell alertly took third on a throw home, setting up Joanna Jackson for an easy RBI groundout.
Becky McDonald (2-6) got the call in the nightcap, facing UNM senior Amy Dumas (8-13).
After a scoreless first, New Mexico manufactured the lead on a single, a sac bunt, a wild pitch and a sac fly in the second inning. With the bases loaded in the third, McDonald hit Robyn Hutson with a pitch to put UNM up 2-0.
The Lobos tacked on a meaningless third run in the sixth. UNLV had little more luck offensively with Dumas than it did with Ogas. Brittany Freight and Morgan Bostwick had two hits apiece and four of the Rebels' five off Dumas, who notched a shutout in her final home appearance.
The losses were the first two to the Lobos in five meetings between the two teams this year. The games also marked the final road games of the Rebs' regular season. They finish the year with a six-game homestand, beginning with San Diego State on Saturday, May 1.
