Feb. 18, 2011
Box Score: UNLV 3, Arkansas 2
Box Score: Utah State 14, UNLV 9
LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV Rebels (3-4) splits their twin-bill of softball games on the second day of the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic held at Eller Media Stadium. UNLV defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks (4-3) in an eight-inning affair by a 3-2 margin before suffering a 14-9 loss to the Utah State Aggies (2-4).
UNLV had a trio of players accumulate three or more hits with Stefany Valentino's four hits leading the squad. Valentino went 4-for-5 with two home runs, four runs scored and two RBI. Tayler Aleman went 3-for-7 with two doubles, two RBI and touched home plate once. Jaexie Balilea rounded out the threesome with a 3-for-8 performance with one home run, three RBI and one run.
Aleman had at least one hit in each contest and extended her season-opening hitting streak to seven games. Coincidentally, she started her freshman campaign, in 2010, on a seven-game run.
Amanda Oliveto highlighted the pitching efforts for the Rebels with an eight-inning, complete-game outing against Arkansas. Oliveto was touched for two runs off of nine hits. She struck out 10 and walked three.
Against Arkansas, UNLV got a game-winning, RBI-single from Balilea in the eighth to notch a victory for the home team. Paige Emerson was placed on second when the international tiebreaker rule being enacted in the inning. Pauline Monreal stepped up against Hope McLemore (2-2) and dropped down a sacrifice bunt to push Emerson to third base. McLemore immediately intentionally walked both Aleman and Korin Cuico to load the bases up for a possible force-out situation. Balilea made the defensive possibility a moot point with her game-winning hit through the left-side.
Scoring was minimal leading up to the eighth, as both teams could only muster two runs apiece. Arkansas got on the scoreboard first off an RBI-triple by Becca Carden to plate Brittany Griffiths, who led off the inning with a single. UNLV countered with a run in the bottom portion of the inning on Valentino's first of two home runs in the affair.
The Razorbacks took another short-lived lead in the fifth on an RBI-single by Stephanie Brewer. Griffiths opened the stanza with a single and moved into scoring position for Brewer on a walk to Courtney Breault.
The Rebels pulled even a second time when Valentino led off UNLV's half of the inning with another solo blast.
The USU-UNLV game had a much different appearance to it than its predecessor. The teams combined for 23 runs and 26 hits.
The Aggies staked themselves to a 5-0 lead through 2.5 innings of action. They notched three runs in the first inning and then scored single tallies in the second and third.
UNLV's offense came alive in the third and tied the game at 5-all. Valentino and Ashli Holland got the Rebel engine revving with back-to-back, one-out singles. Christina Montoya brought both runners home when she connected for a three-run dinger. Balilea tied the game up with a two-run homer three batters later. Aleman scored on Balilea's home run after reaching on a fielder's choice.
Each team put three runs on the scoreboard in the fourth with Holland and Aleman responsible for UNLV's tallies, as the former brought in one runner, while the latter scored two.
USU took control of the game over the final three innings scoring a total of six runs to UNLV's one (Cuico solo home run).
Mandy Harmon (2-4) picked up the win for USU in three innings of relief. Harmon allowed only one run on two hits and struck out four. She relieved Shelbi Tyteca, who went 4.0 innings and was touched for eight runs on nine hits with four strikeouts and two walks.
Jessica O'Connor (0-3) was saddled with the loss in 3.2 relief innings. O'Connor surrendered six runs (four earned) on four hits. She walked four and walked two. Traci Odegard and Kylie Wagner pitched prior to O'Connor entrance in the game and combined to allow eight runs on 11 hits in 3.1 innings.
UNLV is back in action Saturday with two games. The Rebels open up with SIU-Edwardsville (1:30 pm) followed by a meeting with #3/7 Tennessee (3:45 pm) at Eller Media Stadium.
