April 30, 2006

Final Stats

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - UNLV baseball put together one of its most complete games of the year, beating Utah 9-2 on Sunday in the final of a three-game Mountain West Conference series at Franklin Covey Stadium.

The Rebels used 11 hits to score their runs, saw their pitching staff allow just two runs on seven hits and UNLV's defense did not commit an error on the afternoon. It was also the first time this year that UNLV won two-straight road games.

With the victory UNLV improved to 19-26 on the year and 6-10 in the MWC while Utah dropped to 22-20 overall and 5-8 in league play. Matt Luca (2-4) worked four scoreless innings to get the win, one of four pitchers the Rebels used in the game.

Utah scored the first run of the game, using a run-scoring single by Eric King off of Rebel starter Efren Navarro Jr. that gave the Utes a 1-0 lead. That is the way the game stayed until the fourth inning, when UNLV tied the game on a Chris Bonnell double that scored CJ Lang.

The Rebels took the lead in the fifth when Braden Walker hit a triple and then scored on Albert Zerega's single up the middle that made the score 2-1. UNLV doubled its lead in the sixth, scoring an unearned run on an error and then another on Chad Miller's RBI single.

UNLV scored single runs in the seventh and eighth innings before Miller put the game out of reach in the ninth, hitting his team-leading 10th home run, a three-run shot to left field that made the margin 9-2. Miller finished the game going 2-4 with four RBI and a run scored.

Keith Smith and Lang each had two hits as well as Miller while Lang scored two runs for the Rebels. On the mound Navarro Jr. gave up just one run over three innings before turning things over to Luca in the fourth. Matt Wagner then came in and gave up one run in the eighth inning and then Beard closed out the game by tossing a scoreless ninth.

UNLV remains on the road and will play its final non-conference games of the regular season, a Tuesday night game at UC Irvine and then a three-game series at Arizona that begins Friday.