May 14, 2008
UNLV Baseball Media Notes 
IN THE BATTER'S BOX: UNLV (20-33, 8-13 MWC) closes out its 2008 regular season by traveling to play Air Force (16-32, 2-19 MWC) for a three-game series that gets underway Thursday at 1:00 p.m. (PST) at Falcon Field. Friday's game is set for 12:00 p.m. and the finale of the series will be Saturday at 11:00 a.m., and all three games will be available on Gametracker. This marks the third straight season that the Rebels will end their regular season against the Falcons. UNLV enters Thursday's game having lost five straight overall and its last seven road games, including a 12-5 loss at UC Riverside on Tuesday. Xavier Scruggs hit his league-leading 19th home run in the Rebels' loss to the Highlanders, a two-run shot to center field in the third inning. He finished the game with three RBI. Also in that game, junior pitcher Jeff Urlaub made his first start of the season and his first since undergoing Tommy John surgery on his throwing (left) arm.
THE UNLV REBELS: UNLV is being led at the plate by Xavier Scruggs, who is hitting .400 (82-205) with 19 home runs, 64 RBI and 58 runs scored ... For the second time this season Scruggs slugged three home runs in a game, drilling a trio against San Diego State on April 19, as he went 3-for-6 with 8 RBI ... He first did it against Maine on March 1, as he went 5-for-5 with 7 RBI ... He was named the MWC Player of the Week on April 21, the third time this season that he has won the award (3/3 & 4/7) ... Steve Rinaudo is hitting .350 (36-103) and the Rebels have seven regulars hitting .305 or better and the Rebels are hitting .310 as a team ... On the mound, reliever Adam Moser is 6-5 with a 3.88 ERA and five saves in 30 appearances out of the bullpen ... Starter Corey Hales is 4-3 with a 5.46 ERA and 35 strikeouts in 15 appearances, 12 of them starts ... He also has the team's lone complete game of the year, which came in a 6-1 win against San Francisco at home on March 8 ... This is the fifth year for head coach Buddy Gouldsmith, who currently has a career record of 145-152 (.489), which is the third-most victories in Rebel history.
THE AIR FORCE FALCONS: Air Force enters this series having lost seven straight games, although before that the Falcons won 4-of-5, including taking 2-of-3 from BYU on April 24-26 ... Those wins snapped a stretch of 55 straight league losses by Air Force ... AFA is led at the plate by Chay Derbigny, who is hitting .310 (53-171) with five home runs and 29 RBI ... Thursday starter Alex Truesdale is 2-6 with a 7.31 ERA in 11 starts, and he has tossed a complete game while striking out 50 batters in 88.2 innings of work.
SERIES HISTORY: UNLV leads the all-time series with Air Force by a mark of 63-13 (.829), including a Rebel sweep of the Falcons in Las Vegas to end the 2007 regular season. Two of those games were close though, as UNLV won the opener 4-3, and the finale by a 13-12 score, which featured a walk-off home run by Keith Smith with two out in the bottom of the ninth.
