March 9, 2014
Box Score
LOS ANGELES (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV softball team jumped back into the win column Sunday with a favorable 6-1 decision against the Georgetown Hoyas at UCLA's Easton Stadium in Los Angeles. The Rebels trailed most of the contest until Emily Haslinger answered the bell with a pair of solo home runs to turn a deficit into a lead and Amanda Oliveto held the Hoyas' offense in check. With the win, the Scarlet & Gray improved to 8-14 on the year, while Georgetown dropped to 7-11.
The Hoyas jumped on the board first with a score in the second inning aided by a defensive miscue and one hit. Their leadoff batter reached on a fielding error, but was later erased on a fielder's choice. With a runner on first, Alexandria Anttila laced a double down the line in left to put herself and the lead runner (Samantha Giovanniello) in scoring position. Gabriela Evina followed with a ground out to first, but she got the job done as the runner scored from third.
Things turned for the better in the fifth when Haslinger deposited a ball over the left-field fence with one out to even the score at 1-all.
The Rebel backstop wasn't done with her long-ball heroics, as she went deep, once again, in the seventh. Haslinger's dinger sparked a five-run outburst that witnessed four others collect hits in the stanza. Samantha Juarez and Garie Blando kept the pedal down with back-to-back singles, but a fielding error by Anttila in right field on the second hit allowed both to move into scoring position. Emilie Valadez knocked Juarez in with a double to right, while Blando came in off a sac fly by Valentino. Pauline Monreal capped the scoring with a two-run homer to left.
Oliveto picked up the win in complete-game fashion for UNLV in the circle and moved her record to 3-8. She was touched for one unearned run off of five hits, while striking out four against one walk.
Lauren O'Leary (2-6) was tagged with the loss after she allowed six runs off of 11 hits. O'Leary managed to walk one and fan one in seven innings of work.
UNLV returns to action in Southern California next week in Cal State Fullerton's Titan Classic. The Rebels will play a total of four games in Fullerton with two outings scheduled for both Friday and Saturday. The Scarlet & Gray will face DePaul (1:00 pm) and Cal State Fullerton (6:00 pm) on March 14 before squaring off with Texas Tech (12:00 pm) and Canisius (2:30 pm) a day later.
NOTES: On the weekend, a few Rebels helped themselves statistically to move up in the program's record book ... Valentino moved into fourth in batting average (.369) and into a 10th-place tie in walks (64) ... Tayler Van Acker moved into a seventh-place tie in walks (70) ... Monreal moved into ninth in RBI (120) ... Oliveto moved into third place in both appearances (136) and games started (102).
