March 16, 2008

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - UNLV baseball fell behind early and could not recover, losing to New Mexico by a score of 12-3 on Sunday afternoon at Isotopes Park in the final of a three-game series between the two clubs that opened Mountain West Play.

The Rebels took the first two games of the series but could not complete the sweep and fell to 9-8 overall on the year, 2-1 in league play. UNM improved to 9-8 overall as well, 1-2 in the MWC. Willy Kesler earned the win for the Lobos, giving up three runs, two earned, on eight hits in seven innings on the mound. Steve Rinaudo took the loss for the Rebels, allowing six runs, five earned, on eight hits in just 2.1 innings of work.

UNM pushed two runs across the plate in each of the first three innings then put up four runs in the fourth to jump out to a 10-3 lead that was too much for UNLV to overcome. Rinaudo did not make it out of the third inning and then Michael Goodman came in and allowed four runs in 1.1 innings.

The Rebels got their three runs in the top of the second to take a short-lived 3-2 lead, as Rance Roundy and Braden Walker hit solo home runs and Jarred Frierson added an RBI single. It was the first home runs of the season for both Roundy and Walker.

That would be all UNLV would get on the afternoon, as Kesler and Clinton Cox combined to shutout the Rebels the rest of the way.

Rafael Neda had three hits, including a pair of home runs, and four RBI for the Lobos, while Bobby Moore and Mike Brownstein each added three hits, with Brownstein hitting a round tripper as well.

UNLV will now take a break from league action and travel to Cal State Fullerton for a three-game series that gets underway on Thursday, with the first game of the series set to start at 7:00 p.m. (PDT).