April 18, 2014
Box Score
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (UNLVRebels.com) - One day after suffering a tough loss to the New Mexico Lobos, the UNLV Rebels rebounded in a major way with a 10-2, five-inning victory Friday in Albuquerque, N.M. UNLV's offense was sparked by Emily Haslinger, who led the team in RBI (seven), hits (three) and runs (three). In all, the team registered 14 hits with at least one coming from each starter.
As a result of her home runs and RBI, Haslinger tied two of the softball program's single-game records. Prior to Haslinger's efforts, Jaci Hull had been the last Rebel to hit three home runs (April 20, 2010 vs. UMKC) while Cyndi Parus was the last to have seven RBI (April 13, 1993 vs. Pacific).
With the win, the Scarlet & Gray improved to 18-24 on the year and 8-6 in the Mountain West. UNM, on the other hand, fell to 13-28 overall and 4-10 in the conference.
The game started as good as it possibly could with the Rebels scoring five runs in the first inning off of six hits. Garie Blando led off with a ground-rule double to right field and quickly moved to third on a passed ball. Samantha Juarez made her way on base when Lauren Soles (5-6) hit her with a pitch. UNLV then executed a double steal with Juarez breaking to second before Blando came home for the first run. Singles by Tayler Van Acker and Jamie DePippo loaded the bases before Haslinger's first homer of the day capped off UNLV's output at five runs.
In the bottom half of the first, UNM got runners into scoring position before Mariah Rimmer's RBI single.
After a scoreless second inning, the teams scored one run apiece in the third. Haslinger led off the stanza with a solo shot to straightaway center while Jasmine Casados answered with a sacrifice fly for the Lobos after they loaded the bases off three straight singles.
UNLV added four insurance tallies between the fourth and fifth innings to put the game out of reach. In the former frame, Pauline Monreal started it off with a single before moving over to second when Jaexie Balilea put down a sacrifice bunt. Monreal came around to score one batter later when DePippo singled through the right side. DePippo stay on the bases was short-lived when Haslinger cranked a two-run dinger to the opposite field.
Morgan Ettinger (8-7) picked up the win in five innings of work for UNLV. Ettinger was touched for two runs off of 10 hits and two walks. She struck out a pair of Lobos.
Soles was tagged with the loss after lasting only two-thirds of an inning. She allowed five runs off of four hits and one walk. Her teammate Lisa Rodrigues threw the final 4.1 innings for UNM and gave up five runs off of 10 hits with two walks against two strikeouts.
The third and final game of the series is Sunday. First pitch is slated for 1:00 pm MT (12:00 pm PT).
NOTES: UNLV has notched back-to-back 10-run games for the first time this season - the last time that happened was the final two games of the 2011 season vs. Colorado State (May 13 - 10 runs and May 14 - 11 runs) ... UNLV has notched double-digit run outputs in three of the last four games - the last time that happened was in 2011 (May 8 vs. San Diego State and the two aforementioned games vs. Colorado State) ... Five Rebels extended their season-best hitting streaks Friday with at least one hit in the game ... Valentino's is at 14, Blando's is at 11, Juarez and DePippo are at eight, and Haslinger is at seven ... In UNLV's record book, Valentino moved up to 10th in career hits (198) while Haslinger moved into a tie for ninth in single-season home runs (12) ... Since Mountain West play began, UNLV has nine double-digit hit games (17 total), four double-digit run games (five total) and two double-digit RBI games (three total).
