March 25, 2005
Final Stats
ALBURQUERQUE, N.M. - Ryan Kowalski hit his first home run of the season and drove in four runs to lead UNLV to a 12-6 win over New Mexico on Friday night at Isotopes Park.
The win came a day after the Rebels committed five errors and allowed five unearned runs in a 10-8 loss Thursday that opened the series with the Lobos.
UNLV improved to 10-17 overall and 4-1 in the Mountain West Conference with the win while New Mexico dropped to 12-13 overall, 2-3 in the MWC.
Koji Pupo earned the win and improved to 2-0 in 2005 despite allowing all six runs in a difficult third inning for the left hander. New Mexico starter Jason Fernandez took the loss to fall to 4-3 on the season, giving up seven runs in 5.2 innings of work.
UNLV scored the first three runs of the game Friday, picking up a run in the second on an RBI single from Matt Fry and then added two more in the third on Kowalski's two-run round tripper to grab a 3-0 lead.
Pupo couldn't hold the lead though, giving up six runs in the bottom of the frame to the Lobos on two RBI singles and a grand slam to center field by Jeff Grady. The blast put New Mexico up 6-3 but the Lobos wouldn't plate a run the rest of the game.
UNLV cut the lead to 6-5 in the as CJ Lang hit a triple with JC Sibley on first for the first run and the Kowalski drove in his third run of the game on a ground out that scored Lang.
The lead would return to the Rebels an inning later as UNLV erupted for five runs in the sixth inning.
UNLV's rally started with singles by Chris Bonnell and Mike Cruz and Bonnell would score on a wild pitch and Cruz crossed the plate on a fielder's choice by Kowalski, giving the Rebels a 7-6 lead. Kowalski later scored a single by Justin Tellam and then Tellam and Zeke Parraz crossed the plate on a single by Bird, putting the Rebels up 10-6.
UNLV added a run in the seventh and another in the ninth for the final margin. Kowalski scored two runs to go along with his four RBI and Tellam finished the night going 3-5 at the plate with two runs scored and an RBI.
The Rebels complete the three-game series against UNM on Saturday with the first pitch scheduled to be thrown at 11:00 a.m. (PST).
