March 20, 2006

LAS VEGAS - UNLV junior first baseman Chris Bonnell was named the Mountain West Conference Player of the Week, marking the fourth-straight week that a Rebel has earned the award, the league announced today. Zach Borba, Keith Smith and Mike Cruz are the previous Rebels who have won the award.

Bonnell was one of the key components offensively last weekend in helping UNLV sweep The Citadel at home, marking the first time this year that the Rebels swept a three-game series from an opponent.

Bonnell, who is from Las Vegas and prepped at Centennial High School, went 7-for-12 (.583) from the plate with three doubles, six RBI and two runs scored. He started the series with a 3-for-6, two RBI performance in UNLV's 22-6 victory over the Bulldogs. In game two, he was 1-for-2 with a RBI single in an 8-1 win. Bonnell concluded the series with a 3-for-4 outing, hitting two doubles. He came through in the clutch, tying the game at seven with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth to send the game into extra innings. UNLV went on to pull out an 8-7 win in 10 innings. He finished the final game of the series with three RBI and a run scored. Defensively at first base Bonnell had 29 putouts with three assists and only one error.

BYU pitcher Jesse Craig was named the league's pitcher of the week after he tallied his first win of the season in BYU's 10-3 game two win over New Mexico State. He collected seven strikeouts, while giving up no runs and only three hits in 6.0 innings of work.

UNLV will be on the road this week, traveling to San Diego, Calif., for a three-game series with the University of San Diego that gets underway on Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. (PST).