May 6, 2005

Final Stats

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Tyler Beranek went 6-6 at the plate to tie the UNLV baseball and Mountain West Conference record for hits in a game as the Rebels routed Air Force 20-1 Friday afternoon at Falcon Field.

UNLV slugged a season-high seven home runs, including two each by Beranek and Willie Bowman in improving to 23-24 overall, 17-5 in the MWC. Air Force dropped to 6-37 overall, 1-21 in league play.

Beranek, only a freshman, had a career day at the plate, driving in seven runs and scoring five times in the Rebel win. He hit a grand slam in the top of the sixth inning and then ended his day with a two-run home run in the ninth. Beranek also added two doubles and two singles in the win. Beranek joins a group of six other Rebels who had six hits in a game, with the most recent being Peter White, who turned the trick against BYU last year on May 19, 2004.

Air Force scored the game's first run in the bottom of the first inning when Karl Bolt drove in Troy Jeffers on a RBI single to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead. Bolt's single came after the game was delayed for 36 minutes due to lightning.

From that inning on though Air Force's pitching had no answer for UNLV's bats.

UNLV tied the game in the top of the second inning on a single by Beranek that drove in CJ Lang, beginning a scoring spree for the Rebels. Between the second and sixth innings the Rebels plated 13 runs to blow the game wide open.

Ryan Bird drove in all three of the Rebels' runs in the third inning, hitting a three-run home run to move the UNLV lead to 4-1. UNLV added four more runs in the fourth and that rally was highlighted by a two-run home run by Justin Tellam, the sophomore catcher's 13th of the year. In the fifth inning JC Sibley hit a two-run shot of his own to push the lead to 10-1.

In the top of the sixth Bird drew a walk, Lang was hit by a pitch and then Fry walked to load the bases with one out, bringing Beranek to plate. The big freshman then cleared the bases, taking a 3-1 pitch from Jeff Tetrault over the centerfield fence for a 14-1 UNLV lead. UNLV added another run in the seventh on a RBI single by Braden Walker, a pair in the eighth on a two-run home run Bowman and then three more on Beranek's final hit and a solo home run by Bowman.

While the UNLV offense was having its way with Falcons pitching all afternoon, Efren Navarro Jr. turned in his strongest outing of the year. After he gave up the run in the first inning Navarro Jr. shut down the Falcons' offense, allowing just seven hits while striking out seven in seven innings of work to move his record to 3-3. Alex Kringen and Wayne Foltin each pitched a scoreless inning to close out the game. Clayton Couch (0-2) took the loss for the Falcons, giving up seven runs on six hits in 3.1 innings.

UNLV finished the game with 19 hits and seven of the Rebels' nine starters got at least one hit on the afternoon. Bowman finished the game going 2-3 with three RBI and two home runs and Bird was 2-5 with three RBI and two runs scored.

The two teams continued their series Saturday afternoon as Koji Pupo (3-0) takes the mound for UNLV against Kyle DePierre (1-2) of Air Force with the game scheduled to start at 12:00 pm. (PT). Saturday's game time is a switch as the second game of the series was originally scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m.