March 6, 2014
2014 UNLV Softball Weekly Notes - Week Five
LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - After completing their third and final home tournament of the 2014 season, the UNLV Rebels hit the road for the next two weekends with nine games scheduled in Southern California.
UNLV opens up its road trek with its second trip to the Golden State this year with this weekend's UCLA/Cal State Northridge Invitational (March 7-9). Although the tournament is cohosted by UCLA and CSUN, the Rebels will play all five of their games at UCLA's Easton Stadium in Westwood.
The Scarlet & Gray will face its seventh nationally ranked opponent of the year when it square soff against #4/3 UCLA on Friday evening. Overall, UNLV is 1-5 in contests against Top 25 opposition.
Besides the host Bruins, the Rebels will play Charleston Southern (Fri./11:30 am), Loyola Chicago (Sat./9:00 am), CSU Bakersfield (Sat./11:30 am) and Georgetown (Sun./11:30 am).
UCLA/CSUN INVITATIONAL
-UNLV Only-Friday, March 711:30 am Charleston Southern vs. UNLV05:00 pm UCLA vs. UNLV
Saturday, March 809:00 am UNLV vs. Loyola Chicago11:30 am UNLV vs. Bakersfield
Sunday, March 911:30 am Georgetown vs. UNLV
*First team listed is in the third base dugout & has been designated as the home team.
ON DECK: The UNLV Rebels head back to the Golden State for a two-day tournament hosted by Cal State Fullerton on March 14-15. UNLV will play two doubleheaders with games against DePaul and Fullerton on Saturday and then Texas Tech and Canisius a day later on Sunday.
LOOKING BACK A WEEK: The UNLV Rebels went 1-2 last week in a rain-shortened Eller Media Stadium Classic. UNLV had its first two games (DePaul and Binghamton) of its final home tournament wiped out, but contests against New Mexico State (5-4 loss), Weber State (5-1 loss) and Seton Hall (6-2 win) were played.
The Rebels were led offensively by a trio of players with at least three hits and a .333 batting average. Samantha Juarez and Pauline Monreal scattered four hits apiece with the former hitting .500 (4-for-8) to the latter's .444 (4-for-9). Garie Blando rounded out the trio with three hits in nine at-bats for a .333 hitting clip.
In the circle, Morgan Ettinger went 1-0 with three appearances in the circle, one of which was a start, and 9.1 innings of work. She had an ERA of 2.25 and struck out four.
FOUR WEEKS IN: The UNLV Rebels have played 17 games through four weekends and has three players hitting .294 or better with a minimum of 15 hits.
Pauline Monreal leads the team in nearly all offensive categories, such as: batting average (.396), hits (19), doubles (five), triples (one), home runs (five), RBI (19), total bases (41), slugging (.854) and on-base percentage (.455).
More impressively, 58 percent of her hits (11-19) have gone for extra bases.
Monreal owns a third of the Rebels' extra-base hits (11-35) and RBI (19-61).
Samantha Juarez is second on the squad in batting average (.372) and stolen bases (four). Jaurez ranks highly in other offensive categories, as she has contributed 16 hits, four runs and four RBI.
Garie Blando is the third Rebel to rack up an impressive batting average with her .347 output. Blando has 17 hits on the year with three going down as home runs.
In the circle, Morgan Ettinger leads the team in ERA (2.84) and wins (four), while vying for the top spot in appearances (11). Ettinger sits 4-1 on the year in 37.0 innings of work with four starts, two of which ended in complete games.
Amanda Oliveto has thrown the most innings on the team with 56.0 with 11 appearances, eight of which were starts. Oliveto leads the staff with six complete games and 43 strikeouts.
