March 21, 2009
Final Stats
LAS VEGAS - UNLV baseball drilled four home runs, including a pair off the bat of Jesse Wight, and the Rebels beat Air Force 10-5 in a Mountain West Conference game Saturday afternoon at Earl E. Wilson Stadium.
Wight hit a pair of two-run shots to help the Rebels improve to 13-7 on the year, 2-3 in league games, backing starter Tanner Peters (3-1), who earned the victory by giving up five runs on seven hits in seven innings of work. Wight finished the game going 3-for-5 with a career-high five RBI, as he hit a home run for the second consecutive game. Air Forced dropped to 6-11 overall and remained winless in league games at 0-5, with starter Jake Petro (1-3) taking the loss, as he gave up eight runs on nine hits in five innings of work.
Wight and Bryan Resnick each hit two-run home runs in the fourth inning, part of a five-run rally that changed a one-run deficit into a 5-1 lead for the Rebels. Scotty Berke also had a run-scoring double in the frame that seemed to give UNLV momentum heading into the middle innings.
The lead ballooned to 8-1 in the bottom of the fifth when Wight hit his second two-run jack of the game, a shot to left field that gave him a team-leading five round trippers on the year. Jarred Frierson then drilled his second home run of the season, a solo shot to center field that came with two outs in the inning.
Air Force wouldn't go away, scoring four runs in the top of the sixth inning to pull within three at 8-5, collecting four hits off of Peters, including a two-run double by Addison Gentry. A throwing error by Frierson at third kept the inning alive, giving the Falcons to score a pair of unearned runs in the rally.
But that would be as close as the Falcons would get in the game, as the Rebels responded by scoring two unearned runs after the seventh-inning stretch to stretch the lead back to 10-5. Ryan Thornton scored all the way from first on a throwing error by AFA reliever Brad Pingel and Wight singled home J.J. Sferra later in the inning.
Sferra had a productive day at the plate, picking up two hits in three trips while also scoring twice, and Resnick had a three-hit day to go along with his round tripper. Peters was effective on the mound as well for UNLV, striking out six and walking no one, and two of the runs he gave up where unearned.
UNLV and Air Force wrap up their series tomorrow, with the third game of the set slated to begin at 1:00 p.m. (PT) at Earl E. Wilson Stadium.
