May 28, 2010
Final Stats
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - No. 5 seed UNLV fell behind early and could not recover, losing to No. 2 New Mexico, 10-3, in an elimination game Friday afternoon at the 2010 Conoco Mountain West Conference Baseball Championship, which is being held at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
The Lobos roughed up UNLV starter Stephen Singer for seven runs in the first inning, chasing him after he was able to get just two outs, and that was enough for New Mexico to avenge a 6-3 loss to the Rebels earlier in the tournament. UNLV ends the season with a 29-29 overall record while New Mexico improves to 37-19 and will play No. 1 TCU later tonight in the championship game of the tournament.
The Rebels scored a pair of upsets this week, beating No. 4 seed BYU (9-1) on Tuesday and then the Lobos on Wednesday before dropping a hard-fought matchup with the sixth-ranked Horned Frogs by the score of 5-2 last night.
"New Mexico played well today and we couldn't get out of the gate," UNLV head coach Buddy Gouldsmith said. "I can't say enough about the effort of our guys throughout the tournament. They battled the entire way."
In that first inning UNM sent 11 batters to the plate, using five hits while also capitalizing on three walks issued by Singer to jump out to the large lead. The Lobos got RBI singles from Rafael Neda, Ryan Honeycutt and Cameron Smith, the last of which left the bases loaded for Daniel Gonzalez. He cleared them with a triple to the gap in left center and then came home to score on a wild pitch, capping the staggering seven-run frame.
Following a two-run second inning the Lobos had all the runs they would need, as starting pitcher Rudy Jaramillo (4-2) didn't give up a hit until one out in the fourth inning, when he gave up a single to Jarred Frierson and a double to Drew Beuerlein. Jaramillo limited the damage, giving up just a sacrifice fly in the inning and then he allowed a solo home run to Hunter Beaty in the top of the sixth, his third round tripper of the year.
After the seventh-inning stretch the two teams traded runs, with New Mexico getting an RBI double by Justin Howard followed by the Rebels scoring a run when Frierson singled home Beaty, who led off the eighth with a double. Buerlein followed with a single to put runners on second and first with one out, but Jason Oatman came out of the UNM bullpen and got a double play grounder to end the inning. He then retired the Rebels in order in the ninth to end the game.
UNLV had seven hits on the afternoon, three off the bat of Beuerlein and two coming from Frierson, while just two other Rebels had a hit off of Jaramillo, who went 7.1 innings, striking out four and walking none. UNM collected 15 hits in the game, with Adam Courcha leading the way with a trio of base knocks.
