April 27, 2008
Final Stats
OGDEN, Utah - UNLV baseball fell behind early and could not rally, dropping a Mountain West Conference game at Utah by a final score of 9-4 on Sunday afternoon at Lindquist Field. It wrapped up a three-game series that was being played in Odgen because of scheduling conflicts at Franklin Covey Field in Salt Lake City, where Utah normally plays their home games.
Utah scored the game's first nine runs, pushing two across in the first inning, single runs in the second and third, before blowing the game open with a four-run fourth. The Utes chased UNLV starter Thomas Whitsett (2-3) in the fourth, as he allowed six runs, five earned, on eight hits in 3.1 innings of work.
UNLV dropped to 19-23 on the year and 8-10 in MWC games while Utah improved to 16-21 overall and 5-9 in league action. Ute starter John James (3-5) earned the win, as he allowed three runs on 10 hits in 7.2 innings of work.
In the pivotal fourth inning Utah would score all of its runs via the home run, as Fred Ferguson and Cory Shimada hit solo shots and Austin Jones capped the frame with a three-run blast, making it a 9-0 game.
Rance Roundy got UNLV on the board in the sixth with a sacrifice fly to left field, and then in the eighth he doubled home a run and then scored Ryan Thornton's single to center, which made it 9-3. In the ninth Xavier Scruggs hit a sacrifice fly of his own for the final 9-4 total on the scoreboard.
Roundy finished the game with the two RBI and a pair of hits in three trips to the plate and Michael Brenly went 3-for-5 at the dish and scored twice. Jones drove in a total of four runs on the afternoon for the Utes and Jesse Shriner had three hits and scored three times as well. Both teams had 11 hits on the afternoon, and UNLV committed two errors to Utah's three.
UNLV, in the middle of a nine-game road trip, will now spend the next week in California, as the Rebels travel to play Cal State Northridge in a two-game series that starts Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. (PDT). Following the final game of that series on Wednesday, the Rebels will then head to play Cal Poly in a three-game series that gets underway on Friday.
