March 24, 2006
Final Stats
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - UNLV baseball fell behind early, rallied late and had a chance to tie in the ninth but fell short in losing to the University of San Diego 7-6 on Friday afternoon at Cunningham Stadium in the opener of a three-game series between the two clubs.
UNLV dropped back below .500 at 12-13 with the loss, which was charged to starter Chris Saddoris (3-4), as the team's road struggles continued. The Rebels are now 1-9 this year away from Earl E. Wilson Stadium and have six games remaining on their current road trip. USD improved to 16-10 overall and got a strong outing from starter Matt Couch (4-0), who worked eight innings in getting the win.
USD scored four in the first and added two more in the second to grab an early 6-0 lead, with two of those runs in the first inning coming off of two Rebel errors that kept the frame alive. The Rebels battled back, scoring three runs in the seventh and another three in the top of the ninth and had the bases loaded with no out trailing 7-5.
Rebel catcher Michael Brenly struck out looking with the bases juiced for the first out of the frame off of Torero reliever Josh Romanski, who then gave up a sacrifice fly to Albert Zerega that scored Keith Smith, moving the Rebels to within 7-6. Romanski got the Toreros out of the jam by striking out UNLV pinch hitter Xavier Scruggs to end the game, giving Romanski his third save of the year.
It was tough going early on for the Rebels and Saddoris, as USD sent eight batters to the plate in the four-run inning that saw only one run pushed across the plate by a hit. Two other Torero runs were scored on errors by Saddoris on back-to-back plays and another came on a fielder's choice. USD scored two more runs in the second on RBI singles from Jordan Abruzzo and Keoni Ruth, making the score 6-0.
Couch was in a grove to open the game, facing the minimum through four innings and gave up his first hit in the top of the fifth when Chris Bonnell singled for the Rebels with two outs. Couch then retired the next four batters he faced before running into trouble in the seventh.
CJ Lang led off the inning with a double and then later scored on a Keith Smith triple that broke the shut out and seemed to give the Rebels a boost. Smith then scored on a sacrifice fly by Bonnell and then Blake Gailen hit a solo home run, cutting the margin to 6-3. USD was able to get an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth though that made the score 7-3, providing the Toreros with just enough offense to get the win.
Smith finished the game going 2-3 with three RBI and two runs scored while Lang scored a pair of runs as well. After a shaky beginning Saddoris settled down, retiring nine of the next 10 batters he faced before Matt Wagner came on out of the bullpen in the seventh.
UNLV and USD continue their series Saturday with the first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m. (PST) with Kevin Skogley taking the hill for the Rebels against Josh Butler for the Toreros.
