March 3, 2010
Final Stats
TUCSON, Ariz. - UNLV baseball scored late to force extra innings but the Rebels could not make a two-run lead stand and lost to Arizona, 5-4, in a game that lasted 13 innings on Wednesday at Frank Sancet Stadium.
With the scored tied at four and a Wildcat on second base, Rebel reliever Jared Lee fielded a sacrifice bunt but committed a throwing error on the play, allowing the game-winning run to cross the plate. The loss snapped UNLV's seven-game winning streak and dropped the team to 7-3 overall on the year, with Lee (2-2) taking the loss. Arizona moved to 4-3 overall with the victory, as Joe Alison earned the win in relief.
This afternoon's game was a low-scoring affair compared to last night's 12-10 win by the Rebels, although they scored the first run of the game in the top of the first on Brandon Bayardi's double to left that scored Travis Feiner. UNLV would be kept off the board until the top of the eighth, when Bayardi tripled to right-center field, scoring Drew Beuerlein to tie the game at two.
Arizona got single runs in the third and fourth inning off of UNLV starter Stephen Singer, who was solid on the mound in his six innings of work. He gave up just five hits and the two runs, walking four and striking out one.
In the top of the 12th, Cash Thomas was hit by a pitch and then Feiner wasted no time driving him in, hitting the first pitch he saw off of Tyler Hale over the fence in left center, giving the Rebels a 4-2 lead. Lee could not finish out the game, however, giving up RBI singles to Jett Bandy and Joey Rikard, extending the game another inning.
Bayardi finished the game a home run short of the cycle, as he also added a single in a 3-for-6 effort at the plate that included two RBI. His trio of hits accounted for nearly half of UNLV's eight base knocks on the afternoon. Jett had four hits on the day for Arizona, which had 11 hits as a team and also committed two errors.
UNLV returns to Las Vegas for a four-game series against Columbia that gets underway Friday night, with the first pitch at Earl E. Wilson Stadium scheduled for 7:00 p.m. (PT). It marks the beginning of an eight-game homestand for the Rebels, who play 19 of their first 22 games of the year at the friendly confines of Wilson Stadium.
