April 15, 2006
Final Stats
FORT WORTH, Texas - UNLV baseball fell behind early for the second-straight game and could not come back, losing 9-7 on the road to TCU in a Mountain West Conference game at Lupton Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The Rebels trailed 6-1 after six innings and 9-2 after the seventh, but scored three runs in the eighth on a two-run triple by Chris Bonnell and then a run-scoring ground out that brought home Bonnell. With the score 9-5 heading into the ninth UNLV scored twice and had runners at second and third with two out for Bonnell. The junior first baseman fouled out though, ending the game.
UNLV fell to 16-21 with the loss, 3-6 in MWC play while TCU moved to 21-16 with a league-best mark of 8-1. Rebel starter Kevin Skogley (1-5) took the loss, giving up four runs, three earned, on five hits in 2.1 innings of work. Brad Furnish (3-5) worked seven innings and gave up two runs on three hits in getting the win while Sam Demel picked up the save, getting the last two outs of the game.
Early on it was all TCU, as the Horned Frogs scored single runs in the first four innings in jumping out to a 5-1 lead. The Rebels got on the board in the fourth inning when Keith Smith led off the frame with a single, moved to second on a balk, took third on a wild pitch and then scored on a ground out.
After the Horned Frogs put a run on the board in the bottom of the sixth inning on a Keith Conlon double that scored Matt Carpenter, the Rebels matched that with a run of their own in the top of the seventh. Ryan Bird hit a sacrifice fly that scored Bonnell, making the score 6-2. TCU then seemingly put the game away in the bottom of the frame, scoring a run when Xavier Scruggs threw a wild pitch with the bases loaded and then gave up a two-run single to Austin Adams, making the score 9-2.
But the resilient Rebels would not go away, scoring the three runs in the top of the eighth and then mounting a serious threat in the top of the ninth. UNLV had scored one run to make the score 9-6 and had the bases loaded with one out but could not get a base hit off of Demel to tie the game. Smith hit a sacrifice fly that scored one run and moved Ryan Kowalski to third, bringing Bonnell to the plate.
CJ Lang, who was on first, stole second, giving the Rebels the tying run in scoring position. Demel got ahead 0-2 and got Bonnell to foul a pitch down the left side that Conlon caught, ending the game.
It was a difficult game at the plate for UNLV, which finished with just five hits on the afternoon and left six men on base. The Rebels also struggled in the field, committing four errors on the afternoon which lead to two unearned runs. Bonnell finished the game going 1-3 with the two RBI and two runs scored and Smith also scored a pair of runs.
The Rebels wrap up their series with the Horned Frogs on Sunday and Ryan Tabor is scheduled to start for UNLV with the first pitch slated for 11:00 a.m. (PDT). Fans can listen to the game live on KSHP 1400 AM with Jon Sandler handling the play-by-play.
