March 4, 2006
Final Stats
LAS VEGAS - For the second consecutive game UNLV baseball rallied for a victory against No. 8 Texas, only this time it was in the bottom of the ninth as Braden Walker singled with the bases loaded to give the Rebels a 9-8 win at Earl E. Wilson Stadium.
With the score knotted at eight and one out, Rebel freshman Michael Brenly drew a walk off of Longhorn reliever Joey Parigi to load the bases, bringing Walker to the plate. After taking a ball, Walker slapped a single through the left side of a drawn-in infield, giving UNLV the dramatic win over the defending national champions.
It was the fifth-straight win for UNLV, which improved to 6-8 and the second come-from-behind victory as just one night earlier the Rebels upset Texas 13-12, erasing a 10-0 deficit in the process. Eric Brock (1-0) worked the final three innings of the game to pick up his first decision of the year in front of a spirited Saturday afternoon crowd of 2,074. Texas fell to 9-8 on the season and Austin Wood (1-1) was tagged with the loss.
Keith Smith, last night's hero for the Rebels who hit a seventh-inning grand slam that propelled them to the win, was clutch once again this afternoon. The junior hit an RBI single to left field in the ninth inning that scored Cruz, tying the game at eight.
It was a high-scoring game early on, as both teams scored four runs in the first three innings of the game.
The Rebels got on the board in the first inning, pushing a run across the plate on a ground out before a Longhorn error in the second gave them three more runs. With the bases loaded Zach Borba lofted a fly ball into shallow right field that brought Kyle Russell charging in to try and field. The ball hit off of his ground and rolled all the back to the mound, allowing three runs to score.
Texas though knotted the game at four in the top of the third on a sacrifice fly by Russell. Before that the Longhorns started the game by scoring two runs and then another in the second on a Nick Peoples RBI single.
UT jumped back in front in the sixth inning when Bradley Suttle knocked in two runs with a single to right field. But as they did last night, the Rebels battled back and retook the lead 7-6 in their half of the frame, plating three runs on five consecutive singles off of Longhorn starter Adrian Alaniz, who had retired 11 of the last 12 batters he had faced.
In the back-and-forth game the Longhorns retook the lead in the top half of the seventh inning when Jordan Danks hit a two-run triple to left-center field that scored two runs, making the score 8-7. The two teams failed to score runs in the eighth, setting up the heroic finish and Walker's at bat.
Borba, Cruz and Smith each finished with two hits and Ryan Bird and Albert Zerega Jr. each scored two runs in the win. UNLV finished the game with nine hits and committed one error. Texas was led by Peoples and Danks, who each had four hits as part of Texas' 13 hits and two errors.
The two teams wrap up their series Sunday afternoon, with the first pitch slated for 1:00 p.m. (PST) at Earl E. Wilson Stadium. Kevin Skogley is scheduled to start for the Rebels and he will square off against Randy Boone for the Longhorns.
