April 2, 2007

LAS VEGAS - UNLV senior Ryan Kowalski was named the Mountain West Conference Player of the Week, the first such honor for Kowalski in his four-year Rebel career, the league announced today.

Kowalski, a native of San Diego, Calif., was the key this past week in UNLV going 3-1 last week as he collected the game-winning hits in all three victories.

This past Tuesday he got his week started in impressive fashion, hitting a three-run home run that lifted the Rebels to an 11-6 win over No. 24 UC Irvine at home. The round tripper he hit against UCI was the first of the year for the center fielder.

He then took his act on the road and delivered two more game-winning hits at Utah on Friday and Saturday afternoon. In the series opener he hit a two-run single in the top of the 11th inning to give the Rebels a 7-5 win. Then on Saturday with the scored tied at three, Kowalski again hit a two-run single, this one coming in the eighth inning, to give UNLV a 5-4 win.

Over the week Kowalski went 8-for-17 (.471) with 10 RBI and a run scored. He stole a base, drew two walks and did not commit and error in the field. Kowalski is the second Rebel to receive the league's weekly award this year, as Blake Gailen earned the first player honor of the year.

Air Force pitcher Jake Petro, a San Antonio, Texas, product, earned the league's Pitcher of the Week honor, collecting his third win of the season with a complete game shutout in Air Force's 7-0 victory at Hawai'i-Hilo last Saturday. The win snapped the Falcons' 13-game losing streak. In seven innings of work, he scattered four hits while striking out three batters.

UNLV is on the road this week, traveling to play BYU in a three-game series that gets underway Thursday evening at 5:00 p.m. (PDT) in Provo, Utah.

-UNLV-