May 4, 2004

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo - - Junior outfielder Eric Nielsen was named the Mountain West Conference's Player of the Week on Tuesday morning. The right fielder from Las Vegas (Silverado HS, helped the Rebels maintain their conference lead with a sweep over Air Force last week.

In game one of Saturday's doubleheader vs. the Falcons, Nielsen was 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI in a 4-2 victory. He followed in game two with a fifth-inning grand slam, propelling UNLV to a 7-5 victory. In a 22-12 win in the series finale, Nielsen tied an MWC single-game record with three home runs and finished the game a perfect 5-for-5 with seven RBI.

For the week, Nielsen was 9-for13 (.692) with a double, four home runs, 12 RBI and six runs scored. Nielsen leads the MWC in batting average (.383), hits (69), runs scored (56) and RBI (57) this season.

This is the second conference award Nielsen, who was also named MWC Player of the Week in February of 2003.

San Diego State's Daryl Harang was named the conference's Pitcher of the Week after holding New Mexico scoreless through eight innings in the Aztecs' 1-0 victory on Saturday. The senior lefthander from San Diego (Patrick Henry HS), retired nine of the first 10 Lobo batters and 10 of the final 11 hitters he faced, setting the table for closer Ryan Schroyer to earn his MWC-best 10th save of the year. Harang walked none and struck out six en route to his third straight win.

The Rebels will travel to UC riverside tonight for a 6:30 p.m. rematch against the Highlanders before returning home for a three-game series against MWC rival San Diego State. The game times for this weekend's series will be: Friday at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2:00 p.m. Sunday's game has been moved up an hour to 12:00 p.m., in order to accommodate the Aztecs travel schedule.