May 26, 2005
Final Stats
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - UNLV baseball dominated through seven innings behind starter Matt Luca's strong effort and the Rebels survived a Utah comeback attempt to win 5-3 in the second day of the Mountain West Conference Tournament.
The Rebels were leading 5-0 heading into the eighth but Utah got back into the game in a hurry as John Welsh hit a three-run home run off of Rebel reliever Wayne Foltin to bring the Utes to within two. Then in the ninth inning Clayne Garrett led off with a single and Joe Mozeleski followed with a double off of UNLV closer Kyle Tabeek to put the tying runs in scoring position. Tabeek knuckled down and retired the next three Utah hitters, the last two on strike outs to preserve the win.
The Rebels improved to 31-26 overall and will now play BYU on Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. (PT) at Franklin Covey Field for a spot in the championship game on Saturday. The Cougars beat San Diego State 4-3 in Thursday's first game, also withstanding an Aztec rally in the ninth. Utah saw its record fall to 19-35 as the Utes dropped to the loser's bracket.
Luca threw seven innings of shutout ball in one of his strongest outings this season, as the right-hander baffled the Ute hitters, allowing just three hits while striking out seven. Utah's only threat against Luca was in the second inning, when they had runners on first and second with one out. Luca got out of the jam unscathed and he didn't allow another Ute to reach second base as he retired 15 of the next 16 hitters he faced as he improved to 5-6.
The Rebels struck first, scoring two runs in the bottom of the frame to grab an early 2-0 lead. Chris Bonnell drove in Mike Cruz on a sacrifice fly for the game's first run and then Ryan Bird hit a double that pushed Zeke Parraz across the plate.
UNLV threatened to blow the game open in the bottom of the fourth as Justin Tellam led off the inning with a double and Tyler Beranek followed with a single, putting runners on the corners with no out. Utah starter Jason Price got the Utes out of the jam though, getting CJ Lang and Matt Fry to pop out and then Price struck out JC Sibley to keep it a two-run ball game.
The Rebels added a run with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning on a single to center by Bird that scored Bonnell, making the score 3-0. UNLV then got two very important runs in the bottom of the sixth as Sibley singled through the left side to score Lang and Beranek.
Bird finished the game going 2-3 at the plate with two RBI while Sibley was 2-4 with the big two-run single in the sixth. Tabeek earned his team-leading seventh save of the year.
MWC TOURNAMENT NOTES:
-UNLV will start freshman left-hander Efren Navarro Jr. in Friday's game against BYU. Navarro Jr. will bring a 4-3 record with a 5.40 ERA into the game against the Cougars. The freshman was named to the All-Mountain West Conference squad this past Tuesday.
-UNLV won its tournament opener for the fifth time in the six-year history of the Mountain West Conference Tournament. The only time the Rebels lost was in the first MWC tournament back in 2000, a 7-6 loss to San Diego State.
-UNLV and BYU played each other six times during the regular season and the Cougars were the only team in the MWC to take the season series from the Rebels. UNLV was 2-4 against BYU this year.
-UNLV has never beat BYU in the Mountain West Conference Tournament. In the 2001 MWC Tournament the Cougars beat the Rebels 10-9 and the two teams played each other twice in the 2002 championship, with BYU winning both games 13-11 and 8-7. The second time the two teams played in 2002 was for the MWC Championship.
-Air Force became the first team to be eliminated from the double-elimination tournament, as the Falcons lost to New Mexico 11-9 in the final game played Wednesday evening. New Mexico will play San Diego State tonight at 6:00 p.m. (PT) and the loser of that game will also be eliminated.
