May 21, 2005
Final Stats
LAS VEGAS - UNLV baseball scored a season-high 10 runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to blow open a tight game and go on to beat Utah easily 13-6 on senior day Saturday afternoon at Earl E. Wilson Stadium, capping the Rebels regular season.
Trailing 3-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth, the Rebels started the inning with five consecutive singles and 11 straight Rebels reached base before the Utes recorded an out in the inning. Mike Cruz and Dylan Gaughen each hit doubles in the rally, but those were the only two extra-base hits as the Rebels slapped seven singles by seven different batters.
UNLV wrapped up its regular season with a 30-26 overall record and won the Mountain West Conference regular season title with a 23-7 mark in league play. Utah ended with an 18-34 mark, 10-20 in the MWC. The Rebels will have the number one seed for the conference tournament, which is May 25-28 at Franklin-Covey Field in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Before the game six Rebel seniors were honored as Matt Fry, Chris Huseman, Zeke Parraz, Derek Rodriguez, JC Sibley and Kyle Tabeek were all playing in their final home game for the Rebels.
Rodriguez pitched well in his final regular season start, tuning up for next week's tournament by giving up just two earned runs and five hits over five solid innings. Utah's starter Chase Christiansen was just as effective, allowing one earned run through four innings.
The two teams traded single runs in the fourth and fifth innings and the Utes grabbed a 3-2 in the top of the sixth on a RBI single by Joe Mozeleski. Josh Madsen came in out of the Utes' bullpen in relief for Christiansen in the fifth and allowed a run on two hits, but in the sixth he ran into trouble.
Chris Bonnell, Ryan Bird, Tyler Beranek, Fry and Braden Walker all hits singles to start the frame, scoring three runs to give the Rebels their first lead at 6-3. From there it went from bad to ugly for Utah as another six Rebels reached base before an out was recorded. During that stretch Willie Bowman hit a ground ball back to Ute reliever Brandon Bailey, who threw the ball over the head of first baseman Clayne Garrett, allowing two UNLV runs to score. Fry capped the barrage with a RBI ground out that made the score 12-3 and then Walker, the 15th batter to come to the plate, struck out to end the inning.
Jay Brossman hit a three-run home run in the top of the seventh to pull Utah to within six at 12-6, but that would be as close as the Utes would get. UNLV added another run in the bottom of the frame on an Anthony Hernandez single that scored Bowman.
Koji Pupo pitched two innings of relief to earn the win, moving his record to a perfect 5-0 on the year. Madsen took the loss for Utah, dropping him to 0-2. Cruz finished the game with three RBI and Walker went 3-5 with two runs scored.
The Rebels will now try to win their third-consecutive MWC Tournament championship and they will play their first game Thursday at 2:00 p.m. (PT) against the lowest remaining seed from Wednesday's opening round. BYU is the second seed and also gets a bye while No. 3 San Diego State opens with No. 6 Air Force and No. 4 New Mexico plays No. 5 Utah.
