May 25, 2011

Box Score

SAN DIEGO (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV baseball team's 2011 season came to an end with a 5-1 loss to the No. 3 seed BYU Cougars here at the 2011 Mountain West Conference Championship Tournament at Tony Gwynn Stadium in San Diego.

The Rebels (33-25) took a 1-0 lead early on, but could not overcome BYU's late rally, totaling just four hits over the final seven innings of play.

"It is a tough way to end the season, but I am extremely proud of this group of players," said first-year head coach Tim Chambers. "We had a lot of unknowns entering the season and this group, led by a great bunch of seniors, came together and battled through a lot of adversity and went out on a winning note."

UNLV took a 1-0 lead on Richie Jimenez's RBI single to right that scored Casey Sato. Joe Robinson (5-7) was charged with the loss after throwing 6.1 innings, scattering six this and giving up three runs while striking out six along the way.

The Cougars (30-26) knotted the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the third on Stephen Wells' RBI sacrifice fly and took the lead an inning later when Jaycob Brugman scored on Alex Wolfe's single to center field.

BYU added two more in the seventh on Andrew Law's RBI single and a Brugman sacrifice fly to push the lead to 4-1.

Wolfe doubled to lead off the eighth and scored two batters later on Wes Guenther's RBI base knock to right to cap the scoring at 5-1.

UNLV's first season under the direction of head coach Chambers saw the Rebels win the most games since the 2005 campaign and earn the school's first conference pitcher of the year in Tanner Peters. In addition to Peters, Brandon Bayardi, Trevor Kirk and Trent Cook all earned All-Mountain West Conference honors, the most in a single year since 2005.