June 6, 2006

LAS VEGAS - Although the UNLV baseball season came to an end two weeks, 12 players who will return next season are continuing playing this summer in collegiate summer leagues all across the country. Most of the teams have already started play and their seasons continue through the middle of August.

A trio of Rebels will be competing in the Northwoods League, which has teams in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Ontario, Canada. Chris Bonnell will be playing for the Wisconsin Woodchucks (Wausau), catcher Michael Brenly is with the La Crosse (Wis.) Loggers and Efren Navarro Jr. returns for his second season with the Rochester (Minn.) Honkers.

Kyle Kretchmer, Troy Harlander and Zach Borba will be playing closer to Las Vegas this summer, as they are all in the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League, which has teams in the Pacific Northwest. Harlander and Kretchmer will both be playing for the Bellingham (Wash.) Bells while Borba will be in Oregon with the Aloha Knights located in Gresham.

Ryan Kowalski and Alex Chalfant will be teammates this summer with the Graham Roughnecks of the Texas Collegiate League and Anthony Hernandez will be playing with the Salinas Packers of the California Collegiate League. All three will be seniors this year for the Rebels.

The three players who will travel the most this summer to play are Blake Gailen, Chris Saddoris and Xavier Scruggs. Gailen will head to the East Coast to play with the Fayetteville (N.C.) Swampdogs of the Coastal Plain League, which has teams in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Saddoris and Scruggs will travel up north to Alaska for the summer, as Saddoris will pitch for the Peninsula Oilers (Kenai) and Scruggs will play for Athletes in Action Fire (Fairbanks).

UNLV ended its 2006 season fourth in the Mountain West Conference with a 12-10 record and had an overall mark of 29-30.