April 6, 2014

Box Score

BOISE, Idaho (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV softball team fell behind by three runs early in the third and final contest against the Boise State Broncos before its offense erupted for nine unanswered tallies en route to a 9-3 victory. The long ball was the primary catalyst for Sunday's triumph, as the Rebels went deep three times to account for seven of their nine scores at Dona Larsen Park in Idaho's capital city.

Not only did Sunday's victory sew up the Scarlet & Gray's second series win in Mountain West play this year - a sweep of Nevada, Reno on March 21-23 was the first, but it marked the first series loss at home in conference play for BSU dating back to its days in the WAC. The Broncos had been 11-0 in home sets - 6-0 in the MW - since losing three straight to Hawai'i in April 2010.

With the "W", UNLV upped its league record to 6-3 and its overall mark to 16-21. BSU, on the other hand, fell to 18-18 on the year and 3-5 in the conference.

The affair started out well for the Broncos, as their offense produced two runs off of three hits. Tara Glover led off the bottom half of the first with a single up the middle and then moved into scoring position when Amanda Oliveto (8-12) was charged with a wild pitch. Jordan Kreiger, who was at the plate when the misfire occurred, recorded an infield single to put runners on the corners. With Ashley Palmer in the batter's box, Emily Haslinger allowed a passed ball to let Glover score the game's first run. Palmer eventually popped out to Oliveto before Hailey Torrez hit an RBI double to bring home Kreiger.

The lead grew to three runs in the second when Lindsay Nicholson and Glover produced a double and an RBI single, respectively, against Oliveto. After Glover stole second, the Rebel hurler was able to get two quick outs to end the scoring for the Broncos for the day.

The Rebels managed to get runners to second in both the first and second frames with a pair of singles and sacrifice bunts, but they were unsuccessful in producing any runs until the third.

Down by three in the third, UNLV was able to pull even with three runs off of three hits. Garie Blando got the offensive going with a one-out walk against Rebecca Patton (16-11). Samantha Juarez produced the first runs for the Rebels when she smashed her second home run of the weekend to left field. Pauline Monreal kept the inning revving two batters later with a two-out double to left. Tayler Van Acker then evened the score at 3-all when she hit a single through the right side.

The Rebels took the lead for good when Jamie DePippo laced an RBI single up the middle moments after Valentino and Monreal recorded base hits of their own.

UNLV put some breathing room between itself and BSU in the sixth when Monreal smashed a grand slam to left to up the lead to six runs at 9-3. The trio of runners had been put on base with help from a walk (Haslinger), a fielding error (Blando) and another walk (Juarez).

Both Oliveto and Patton went the distance with the former earning the win and the latter taking the loss. Oliveto allowed three runs off of nine hits while striking out five against one walk. Patton was roughed up for nine runs (five earned) off of 12 hits. She was even in the walk-strikeout department with four apiece.

After spending the past two weeks on the road, the Rebels return to Eller Media Stadium next week with a three-game set against the Colorado State Rams. The series will begin Friday, April 11 with first pitch scheduled for 6:00 pm. The final two games - Saturday, April 12 and Sunday, April 13 - have start times of 1:00 pm.

NOTES: With help from her fifth-inning single, Valentino extended her hitting streak to a season-best nine games ... Monreal went 3-for-4 in the game with two extra-base hits (a double and a home run), four RBI and two runs scored ... In the program's offensive record book, Monreal moved up to fourth place in RBI (141) and Valentino moved into a tie for tenth in runs (112) ... In the program's pitching record book, moved into fourth place in wins (60) and became only the fourth Rebel hurler to amass 60 or more for their career.