May 22, 2008
Final Stats
FORT WORTH, Texas - UNLV baseball's season came to an end on Thursday in a 7-4 defeat to Utah in an elimination game in the Phillips 66 Mountain West Conference Championship, which is being played at Lupton Stadium.
The sixth-seeded Rebels, who finish the year with an overall record of 22-37, battled all afternoon in hot and humid conditions, but could not collect enough key hits top topple the fifth-seeded Utes. Utah improved to 26-27 overall and will face the loser of tonight's game between top-seeded TCU and second-seeded New Mexico on Friday afternoon.
Thomas Whitsett (2-6) took the loss for the Rebels, giving up six runs on nine hits, striking out one and walking three. The freshman worked out of a couple jams early to keep the Rebels in the game, but the Utes struck for three runs in the seventh and that proved to be the difference. Bryn Card (3-1) picked up the win for Utah, giving up a pair of runs on eight hits in 6.1 innings, and Robert Chimpky got the final five outs of the game to earn his ninth save.
"Utah got some big hits in key situations and that was the difference," UNLV head coach Buddy Gouldsmith said. "We had some opportunities to get some runs and have big innings, but couldn't get it done."
The Rebels finished the game with 11 hits on the afternoon, but left 10 runners on base. Utah had 13 hits overall, including four that went for extra-bases compared to just a double by J.J. Sferra for UNLV. Utah scored the first run of the in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by Dustin Hennis, giving the Utes a 1-0 lead.
The two teams traded runs in the third, with UNLV knotting the score with Sferra coming home on an error while Utah moved back out in front on Jesse Shriner's RBI ground out.
Utah added to its lead in the fourth on an RBI single by Michael Beltran that made the score 3-1, but without strong pitching from Whitsett and solid plays by the Rebel defense, the deficit could have been more.
In the fourth the Utes had runners on the corners with out, but Whitsett battled and got a pop out to shallow right and a line out to first to give up just the one run. In the fifth Utah used an error and a double to put runners on second and third, threatening to blow the game open. First baseman Xavier Scruggs caught a rocket to take away extra bases and record the first out, then third baseman Braden Walker made an amazing play on a foul ball, as he leaned over the dugout railing to snare it for the second out. Whitsett then got a fly out to right field to escape another jam.
UNLV cut the lead in half in the top of the seventh, as Anthony Morel lead off the inning with a single up the middle and then moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Sferra singled to shallow center field, putting runners on the corners, and that brought an end to Card's day on the mound. Stephen Streich came in out of the Ute bullpen and Rebel left fielder Scotty Berke greeted him with a run-scoring but, making it 3-2. Scruggs had a chance to tie the game, but he popped out to short.
Utah answered after the seventh-inning stretch, getting a two-run home run by Hennis and then an RBI single by Beltran, making it 6-2. Those insurance runs would prove to be huge heading into the eighth, as UNLV refused to roll over.
The Rebels loaded the bases in the top of the eighth on two hit batters and a single, and the Utes countered by bringing in Robert Chimpky from the bullpen. Playing station-to-station baseball, the Rebels scored runs on singles by Morel and Sferra, cutting the lead in half at 6-4. Chimpky got pinch hitter Jesse Wight to fly out to left to get out of the inning.
Utah had an answer though, getting one of those runs back on a run-scoring single by Cody Guymon that scored Shriner, who had singled to open the inning and moved up to second on a sacrifice. That run made it a 7-4 ball game, which would prove to be the final score, as the Rebels went down in order in the ninth against Chimpky.
