April 14, 2014

LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - UNLV baseball (25-11/13-5 Mountain West) is now ranked in three national polls after splitting a midweek series with Arkansas and winning its series against conference foe San Jose State over the weekend. The Rebels are now No. 16 according to Perfect Game, No. 20 by Baseball America and they entered Collegiate Baseball News's top 30 poll at No. 25.

UNLV, who was also ranked No. 29 by CBN earlier this season, finished 3-2 on the week and started by traveling to face No. 24 Arkansas. The Rebels won the first game of the midweek series 10-7, but dropped the second game 9-2.

UNLV returned home to host San Jose State and beat the Spartans 9-1 on Friday and out dueled them on Saturday, winning 2-1. The Rebels could not complete the sweep, dropping the Sunday game 4-3 in 14 innings.

UNLV also received votes in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Poll, for the sixth consecutive week, and in the USA TODAY Baseball Top 25 Coaches Poll, for the third consecutive week.

Last year UNLV was ranked No. 21 by Baseball America in week four, following its sweep at No. 9 Stanford. That week the Rebels were also ranked No. 25 by Collegiate Baseball, No. 28 by NCBWA and No. 24 by Perfect Game.

Before 2013, the last time the program was ranked was during the regular season was May 28, 2003, when UNLV was No. 15 by Baseball America, No. 20 by Collegiate Baseball News and No. 20 in the Sports Weekly/ESPN Top 25 Coaches Poll.

The Rebels will next travel to face Pac-12 member Arizona State (19-14). The Rebels and Sun Devils will play a midweek game on Tuesday before UNLV travels to Air Force. First pitch for Tuesday's game is 6:30 p.m. PT. Sophomore Kenny Oakley (3-2, 2.06 ERA) will get the nod for the Rebels and right handed pitcher Seth Martinez (2-0, 6.91 ERA) is expected to start for Arizona State. Fans can watch the games live on off of a link at TheSunDevils.com.