Feb. 22, 2008
UNLV 6, Michigan State 3
Texas 4, UNLV 1
Cathedral City, Calif. - The #18 UNLV Rebels splits their games at the Palm Springs Classic on Friday afternoon in Cathedral City, Calif. The Rebels (10-3-1) took a 6-3 decision against the Michigan State Spartans (4-1) before falling to the #35 Texas Longhorns (6-2-1) by a 4-1 margin.
In game one, UNLV jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead when Alyssia De La Torre came around to score in the first inning following her double down the left-field line. The ball initially deflected off Traci Nicosia's glove at third and rolled down into the left-field foul territory where Jessica LeFevre, MSU's left fielder, misplayed the ball and allowed it to roll to the outfield fence
The Rebels pushed its lead to 2-0 in the second when Brittany Bolinger nailed a triple to right center to score Brittany Meade from first. Meade had reached base with help from a Bianca Mejia throwing error at short.
UNLV tacked two more runs onto its lead in the third off of a two-run home run by Rosa Ordaz. Laura Briones opened up the inning with a double to left center and came across when Ordaz went to the opposite field.
Michigan State plated three runs in the bottom of the third. The Spartans had the bases loaded with two out and got a deep fly to left field from Caitlin Mahoney. De La Torre dropped Mahoney's fly to allow the three runners on base to score.
The Spartans got a single and a double in the sixth to put runners in scoring position with one out. Stephanie Bregante entered the game in relief and shut down the MSU threat with a strikeout and a groundout.
The Rebels added insurance runs in the seventh off of a two-run single by Caitlyn Paus. With the bases loaded, Paus plated De La Torre and Briones from scoring position.
Traci Odegard improved to 4-0 on the year in 5.1 innings of work. Odegard surrendered six hits in the game and all three runs scored while she was in the circle were unearned.
Bregante picked up a save in 1.2 innings of relief.
In game two, UNLV took a 1-0 lead in the first inning and held onto it until Texas got a grand slam in the third.
Bolinger opened the game with a single and then took third when Jaci Hull singled through the left side. Briones gave UNLV the early lead with a single to left to score Bolinger.
After UNLV scored its run, Meagan Denny (5-0) shut down the Rebel offense for the remainder of the game. Denny notched 14 strikeouts to two walks and four hits.
Bregante (5-3) allowed only three hits in the game, but two of them came in the Longhorns' big inning. With one out, she walked two and gave up a double to load the bases for Tallie Thrasher's dramatics. Thrasher took Bregante's offering to deep right center for a grand slam.
Denny picked up the win in complete-game fashion, while Bregante took the loss. Bregante struck out five and walked three.
UNLV returns to action on Saturday with a pair of games. The Rebels will take on Stanford at 10:00 am and follow it up much later with an 8:00 pm contest with Georgia.
