March 31, 2006

Final Stats

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - In a battle of preseason Mountain West Conference favorites, UNLV baseball lost a 5-2 game to TCU in the MWC Preseason Tournament on Friday night at Tony Gywnn Stadium.

The Rebels were picked to finish second in the league while the Horned Frogs were tabbed the favorites in their first year in the conference, and Friday's night game was closely played but decided in the sixth. That is when TCU scored four runs off of UNLV starter Kevin Skogley to break a 1-1 tie.

UNLV dropped to 13-16 on the year, 1-1 in league play and Skogley (1-4) was charged with the loss. TCU improved to 14-14, 2-0 in conference with starter Jake Arrieta (6-2) getting the win and Omar Arif picking up the save.

TCU got on the board first in the third inning when Steven Trout's sacrifice bunt scored Ryan Pack, giving the Horned Frogs and early 1-0 lead. UNLV then knotted the game in its half of when Braden Walker and CJ Lang hit back-to-back singles, with Walker scoring on Lang's hit when TCU leftfielder Chad Huffman committed a throwing error, tying the game at one.

In the pivotal sixth inning the Horned Frogs used five hits and a throwing error to plate four runs, making it a 5-1 game. Four different TCU players had RBI hits in the inning and the margin was too much to overcome with Arrieta throwing a strong game. He allowed just eight hits and two runs, both unearned, while striking out 10 in 7.2 innings of work.

UNLV got another run in the seventh on an RBI single by Ryan Kowalski that scored Walker, moving the score to 5-2. The Rebels had runners on first and second with two out but Arif got Ryan Bird to ground out, ending the inning. Skogley pitched well in the defeat outside of the sixth inning, striking out five and walking none in seven innings of work.

The Rebels continue playing in the MWC Preseason Tournament on Saturday, playing Air Force at 3:00 p.m. (PST) with Matt Luca scheduled to get his second start of the year for UNLV.