May 19, 2010
UNLV at San Diego State Game Notes
LEADING OFF
UNLV (27-24, 11-10 MWC) concludes its regular season with a three-game Mountain West Conference series at San Diego State (25-26, 10-11 MWC) that gets underway Thursday at 6:00 p.m. (PT) at Tony Gwynn Stadium. Game two is Friday at 6:00 p.m. and the finale is Saturday at 1:00 p.m., and fans can follow all three games of the series via Gametracker by going to www.UNLVRebels.com. The series carries seeding implications for the upcoming Mountain West Conference tournament, which gets underway next Tuesday and is also in San Diego. The Rebels are currently third in the league standings, just a game ahead of both SDSU and BYU, while Utah is fifth but just two games behind UNLV in the standings. UNLV can also move up to second depending on how the final weekend of MWC games goes. The Rebels come into the series on the heels of an 11-8 non-conference loss against Cal State Northridge on Tuesday that was the final game of the season for UNLV at Earl E. Wilson Stadium. This will be the first time this season that the Rebels will play the Aztecs due to the unbalanced Mountain West Conference schedule.
REBELS AT A GLANCE
Runs have not been hard to come by for the Rebels, as they have scored a total of 417 in 51 games, including 23 on May 1 against Air Force and 22 against Temple on Feb. 26 ... That is an average of 8.2 runs per game ... UNLV is hitting .315 as a team, with 45 home runs, 107 doubles and 368 RBI ... Drew Beuerlein has been UNLV's most consistent hitter, posting a .356 (72-202) average ... He had a 17-game hitting streak earlier this season and he has team highs of 10 home runs and 56 RBI ... Freshman left fielder Brandon Bayardi is hitting .363 (78-215) and he also has laced 21 doubles, driven in 51 runs and hit eight home runs ... Overall the Rebels have seven regulars who are hitting .314 or better ... Friday-night starter Tanner Peters leads the MWC and is 23rd in the country with 94 strikeouts ... Peters is averaging 10.48 strikeouts/per nine innings, which is 31st in the NCAA ... Rebel starter Matt Hutchison is 5-4 with a 4.12 ERA and also has four saves in 21 total appearances, striking out 59 and walking 21 in 67.2 innings of work ... Hutchison, who has made nine consecutive starts, actually opened the season as the team's closer ... UNLV is in its seventh season under head coach Buddy Gouldsmith, who has a career record of 200-212 (.485), and his 200 victories are the second most in school history.
AZTECS AT A GLANCE
San Diego State enters the series having lost three in a row after getting swept last weekend at BYU by scores of 10-9 (10), 13-5 and 16-10 ... The Aztecs are hitting .305 as a team and leading the offense is Brandon Meredith, who is hitting .393 (70-178) with five home runs, 11 doubles and 48 RBI ... Cory Vaughn has hit seven home runs and is hitting .364 on the year for SDSU ... On the mound the Aztecs have a staff ERA of 5.62 ... SDSU's best pitcher has been Addison Reed, as he is 8-1 with a 2.33 ERA to go along with 83 strikeouts and 12 walks in 73.1 innings of work ... San Diego State is in its eighth season under head coach Tony Gwynn, and he has a record of 239-239 (.500) with the Aztecs.
TEAMS JOCKEYING FOR MWC POSITION
Heading into the final weekend of regular season play, UNLV (11-10) holds a narrow one-game lead for third over San Diego State (10-11) and BYU (10-11), while Utah (9-12) is two games out of third and currently sixth in the standings. The Rebels and Aztecs play a three-game series in San Diego beginning Thursday, while BYU hosts Air Force and the Utes host New Mexico (13-7) to close out the regular season. The Lobos currently are second in the league standings, but the Rebels have a chance to catch them if they sweep SDSU and Utah can sweep New Mexico. If that scenario took place, the Rebels would have a higher winning percentage and finsih second overall in the MWC standings. TCU (19-5) has locked up the regular season title and the No. 1 seed heading into next week's conference tournament in San Diego, while Air Force will finish last in the league and not eligible for the MWC tournament.
