May 12, 2008
LAS VEGAS - UNLV baseball will travel to play UC Riverside on Tuesday night at the Riverside Sports Complex to open up a four-game road trip that ends the Rebels regular season. The first pitch between the Rebels and the Highlanders is set for 6:00 p.m. (PT).
UNLV is looking to snap a four-game losing streak after it dropped the last four of a five-game homestand last week, including a weekend sweep against Mountain West Conference rival New Mexico at Earl E. Wilson Stadium. After tomorrow's game against UCR, the Rebels will then travel to play Air Force in a three-game series that gets underway on Thursday at Colorado Springs, Colo.
UNLV (20-32) is being led at the plate by Xavier Scruggs, who is hitting .403 (81-201) with 18 home runs, 61 RBI and 57 runs scored and he has been named the MWC Player of the Week on three times this (3/3, 4/7 &4/21). Steve Rinaudo is hitting .364 (36-99) and the Rebels have seven regulars hitting .305 or better and they are hitting .311 as a team. On the mound, reliever Adam Moser is 6-4 with a 3.88 ERA and five saves in 30 appearances out of the bullpen. This is the fifth year for head coach Buddy Gouldsmith, who currently has a career record of 145-151 (.490), which are the third-most victories in Rebel history.
UCR (18-27) has won seven of its last 10 games, including taking a series win over UC Davis at Riverside this past weekend. The Highlanders are being led at the plate by Drew Garcia, who is hitting .333 (60-180) with three home runs and 39 RBI, but as a team UCR is hitting only .261 on the year. On the mound UCR has a 5.77 ERA and their closer, Joe Kelly, is 2-0 with six saves and a 7.36 ERA. This is the fourth year for UCR head coach Doug Smith, who has a career record of 113-100 (.531).
UNLV trails the all-time history with UC Riverside by a margin of 3-8 (.273), and the last time the two teams met was in 2006, when they split a home-and-home series, with the home team winning each time. UNLV won 14-8 at Earl E. Wilson Stadium but lost at Riverside, 6-4.
