May 24, 2005
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IN THE BATTER'S BOX: UNLV heads to Utah for the Mountain West Conference Tournament, held at Franklin Covey Field in Salt Lake City on May 25-28. The Rebels are the No. 1 seed by virtue of their MWC regular season title and UNLV will have a bye into the semifinals. UNLV will play its first game on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. (PT) against the lowest remaining seed from Wednesday's opening round.
LAST TIME OUT: UNLV swept Utah to close out its regular season at home, winning all three games by the scores of 10-4, 9-7 and 13-6. Matt Fry led the Rebels effort in the opening game of the series, hitting two home runs, including a two-run shot in the sixth inning that was the game winner. The Rebels then clinched the MWC regular season title with their 9-7 win in the second game and UNLV exploded for 10 runs in the bottom of the sixth in the final game to complete the sweep. Before the Rebels' final regular season game this past Saturday, six UNLV seniors were honored before the game. Zeke Parraz, Kyle Tabeek, Matt Fry, JC Sibley and Chris Huseman all were playing in their final game at Earl E. Wilson Stadium.
UNLV REBELS(30-26, 23-7 MWC)Head Coach: Buddy Gouldsmith(67-50, 2nd year):
UNLV won the Mountain West Conference regular season title with a 23-7 league record, two games ahead of BYU, which finished at 21-9 The Rebels averaged 11.5 runs per game in 30 league contests. As a team UNLV is hitting .309 on the season with 63 home runs. The pitching staff comes into this week's games with a 5.44 ERA. Leading the UNLV offense is Zeke Parraz who is hitting .335 with a team-high 58 RBI. Justin Tellam leads the club with 16 home runs. JC Sibley has settled into the lead off spot as he is hitting .373 and has stolen nine bases in 13 attempts with a .477 on-base percentage. Matt Luca has a 4-6 record with a 4.85 ERA and he is second on the team with 53 strikeouts. Koji Pupo sports a 5-0 record and a 5.54 ERA while Derek Rodriguez is 4-5 and he leads the squad with 64 strikeouts. He tossed UNLV's only complete game of the season on April 17 against Utah. Kyle Tabeek leads the club and the MWC with six saves and he has a 4-1 record out of the bullpen with a 3.13 ERA in 24 appearances.
FOLLOW THE MWC TOURNAMENT: Fans can listen to every game that UNLV plays in the Mountain West Conference Tournament on 1400 KSHP AM. Tim Neverett will handle the play-by-play. Fans can also get live stats of every UNLV game by visiting www.unlvrebels.com can clicking on the Gametracker link. Fans can view live stats of the rest of the tournament games by going to www.themwc.com.
UNLV THE NO. 1 SEED AT MWC TOURNAMENT: By sweeping Utah this past weekend UNLV secured the top seed for the Mountain West Conference Tournament by winning the regular season title with a 23-7 MWC record. BYU was second with a 21-9 league record, San Diego State was third with a 17-13 mark, New Mexico was fourth at 15-15, Utah came in fifth with a 10-20 record and Air Force wrapped up the league with a 4-26 mark in the conference.
SECOND REGULAR SEASON TITLE IN THREE YEARS FOR UNLV: UNLV won its second MWC regular season title in the past three years, as the Rebels won the regular season championship during the 2003 season. During the 2003 campaign the Rebels set a school record with 24 MWC wins, finishing 24-6 overall in league play. This season the Rebels won 23 games, the second most for UNLV in the six years it has played in the MWC. With their 20 league wins during the 2004 season, the Rebels have reached 20 MWC wins for the third-consecutive season as well. No other team in the history of the MWC has ever put together back-to-back 20 win campaigns in league play.
REBELS GUNNING FOR A THIRD-STRAIGHT TITLE: The Rebels will be attempting to win their third-consecutive MWC Tournament Championship and become the first team in the MWC history to win three consecutive titles. BYU won two straight from 2001 to 2002, but the Cougars were denied a three peat by the Rebels in 2003. In last year's tournament UNLV beat San Diego State at Earl E. Wilson Stadium.
