May 20, 2005
Final Stats
LAS VEGAS - UNLV baseball rallied for a 9-7 victory over Utah on Friday night at Earl E. Wilson Stadium as the Rebels clinched the outright Mountain West Conference regular season crown for the second time in three years.
UNLV won its first MWC regular season title in the 2003 season and the Rebels have also won the last two Mountain West Conference Tournaments.
No matter what the Rebels do on Saturday in their final regular season game, they are guaranteed the title since BYU lost to San Diego State 12-1 on Friday afternoon in their last regular season game. UNLV's league record is 22-7 with an overall record of 29-26. That mark is a game and a half ahead of second-place BYU, which finished conference play at 21-9 in the MWC, 37-17-1 overall.
With the scored tied at seven heading into the bottom of the seventh, the Rebels plated two runs to regain the lead at 9-7 and they never looked back.
Ryan Bird started the rally with a solo home run with one out and Matt Fry, the hero of last night's win with two home runs, hit a single that scored Tyler Beranek to put the Rebels up for good.
Wayne Foltin then worked a scoreless eighth and Kyle Tabeek came on to slam the door on the Utes, getting a fly out, a strike out and a ground out for his sixth save of the year. Alex Kringen came in with the score tied at seven and a runner on second with two out in the top of the seventh inning and got a fly out to end the threat. That one out allowed Kringen to earn the win, his first decision this season.
UNLV had battled back from a two-run deficit to take a 7-6 lead after the sixth inning, scoring three runs in the frame. Fry had a RBI double, Lang a RBI ground out and Zeke Parraz capped the rally with a run-scoring double. Utah tied the game in the top of the seventh though, setting up the clutch bottom of the seventh inning for UNLV.
With strong winds blowing out of Earl E. Wilson Stadium, it looked like it was going to be a high-scoring game early on, as the Utes jumped on Rebel starter Efren Navarro Jr. for four runs in the opening inning of the game. Ryan Khoury hit a two-run home run and Utah added a RBI single and a RBI ground out to grab an early 4-0 lead.
UNLV responded with three runs of its own in the bottom of the first with CJ Lang hitting the third pitch he saw from Utah starter Jason Price over the left field fence to cut the Utah lead to 3-1. Parraz was then hit by a pitch and after a strike out, sophomore catcher Justin Tellam hit his team-leading 16th home run to make it a 4-3 ball game.
The pitchers settled down after the opening inning though, with each team getting only a single run over the next four innings. Utah plated its run in the top of the second on a ground out and UNLV scored its run in the bottom of the fourth sacrifice fly.
During that stretch Navarro Jr. got into a grove, striking out six of the next nine batters he faced from the third inning through the fifth. Beranek finished the game going 3-3 with three runs scored while Lang drove in three runs for the Rebels.
UNLV and Utah wrap up their series Saturday afternoon with the first pitch set for 2:00 p.m. (PT) at Earl E. Wilson Stadium. It will be the final home game for the Rebel seniors.
NOTES: -UNLV baseball's regular season title is the fifth Mountain West Conference Championship that UNLV has won this year, a school record for MWC competition. The other four are men's and women's MWC swimming championships, women's soccer regular season title and women's golf MWC Championship.
-UNLV will open the Mountain West Conference Tournament as the number one seed and the Rebels will play their first game on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. (PT) against the lowest-remaining seed after Wednesday's first round.
-This year's MWC Baseball Championship is May 25-28 at Franklin-Covey Field in Salt Lake City, Utah.
