Feb. 6, 2005
Final Stats
LAS VEAGS, Nev. - UNLV baseball ended a season-opening two-game losing streak in a big way Sunday afternoon, as the Rebels rapped 15 hits in a 19-9 rout of Cal State Northridge at Earl E. Wilson Stadium.
After scoring six runs and leaving a combined 30 men on base in their first two games of the season, the Rebels' offense came alive in the opening inning, scoring four runs. UNLV's bats never let up and the Rebels picked up their first win of the season, improving to 1-2. CSUN lost its first game of the year, falling to 2-1-1.
The Rebels got started early offensively, pushing four runs across the plate in the opening inning.
After centerfielder Ryan Kowalski led off the game with a strike out, short stop Zeke Parraz and leftfielder Matt Fry followed with singles and Tyler Beranek walked to load the bases. Efren Navarro Jr. then hit a fly ball to Matador leftfielder Nick Mahin, who dropped it, allowing Parraz and Fry to score, making the score 2-0 UNLV. Beranek then scored on a sacrifice bunt by Ryan Bird and then Navarro Jr. scored on an RBI single by CJ Lang, pushing the score to 4-0 after one inning.
Errors cost the Matadors throughout the game, as 10 of the Rebels' 19 runs scored were unearned.
Cal State fought back to take the lead, scoring two runs in the second on a two-run home run by Chase McGuire and then three more runs in the third, making the score 5-4.
It was a short-lived lead for the Matadors, as UNLV knotted the game at five in their half of the third inning as Fry scored his second run of the game on a sacrifice fly by Navarro Jr.
UNLV grabbed the lead for good in a six-run sixth inning that saw the Rebels score two runs off of balks by CSUN pitcher Paul Wilson. The Matadors also committed two errors in the pivotal sixth, and five of the six runs that the Rebels scored were unearned.
UNLV padded its lead in the eighth, scoring eight runs as the Rebels batted around for the second time in the game.
Fry hit 3-3 in the game with three runs scored, Parraz was 3-5 with two RBI and Navarro Jr. drove in a team-high three runs in the win. UNLV starter Eric Brock earned his first win of the season (1-0). CSUN starter Joe Rocchio (0-1) took the loss.
UNLV hits the road for the first time this season this coming weekend, as the Rebels play a three-game set with perennial-power Texas in Austin, Texas, on Feb. 11-13.
