March 12, 2006
Final Stats
LAS VEGAS - UNLV baseball held off visiting Cal, getting two scoreless innings of relief from Jabe Beard on Sunday afternoon to secure a 5-4 Rebel win after the Golden Bears had crept to within a run at Earl E. Wilson Stadium.
UNLV carried a 5-1 lead heading into the top of the sixth inning, but two Cal home runs, a solo shot in the sixth and then a two-run shot by Allen Craig in the seventh, made the score 5-4 heading into the eighth.
Beard came in out of the Rebel bullpen, survived a tricky eighth inning and then retired the side in order in the ninth to record his second-straight save and third of the season. Ryan Tabor (1-1) started for the Rebels and tossed six strong innings to get the win, moving UNLV to 9-11 on the season. Cal starter Michael Cooper (1-2) was charged with the loss as the Golden Bears dropped to 9-8.
It was in the eighth inning that Cal nearly tied the game, getting runners on first and third with one out against Beard, bringing Charlie Cutler to the plate. Cutler hit a ground ball that bounced off of Beard's glove and to second baseman CJ Lang, who tagged out Cal runner Michael Bradley. Ryan Hanlon initially scored on the play for the Golden Bears, but Cutler was called out by the first the base umpire, who ruled Bradley interfered with Lang.
The call preserved the Rebels' one-run lead and Beard took care of the rest the following inning, getting a strike out, a ground out and a fly out to end the game.
Cal got on the board first with an RBI single but the Rebels answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the frame on a Lang single that scored Ryan Kowalski. UNLV tacked on another run in the fourth inning, when Keith Smith scored on a throwing error, before the Rebels blew the game open in the fifth.
Chris Bonnell started the rally with an RBI single that made the score 3-1 and then Blake Gailen doubled the lead, hitting a single to left field with the bases loaded that scored two. From there the Rebels fought off Cal before getting the ball to Beard in the eighth inning.
Beard was lights out in the final two games against Cal, tossing four scoreless innings and allowing just three hits and no walks while striking out one.
Smith finished the game with three hits and a run scored, and Kowalski added a pair of hits as well. Tabor worked his longest outing of the year and gave up just two runs on six hits to go along with four strikeouts.
The win brought to a close a 12-game homestand for the Rebels and they went 8-4, taking series wins from Eastern Michigan, then-No. 8 Texas and Cal while splitting a two-game series with Texas Tech and beating UC Irvine once.
UNLV now hits the road for the first time in a month, traveling to play UCLA on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. (PST) in Los Angeles, Calif. The Rebels will then return home for a three-game series with The Citadel that begins Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Earl E. Wilson Stadium.
