April 8, 2014
UNLV-Arkansas Game Notes
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UNLVRebels.com) - No. 20 UNLV baseball (22-9/11-4 Mountain West) will wrap up its nine-game road stretch with two midweek games at Arkansas (20-12), who are ranked No. 24 by Perfect Game. The Rebels, who are also ranked No. 17 by Perfect Game, are coming off of a series victory at Fresno State. UNLV defeated the Bulldogs 6-0 on Friday but lost 2-0 on Saturday. The Rebels bounced back and won the rubber match 7-0 on Saturday. Arkansas is coming off of a series win over No. 1 South Carolina. The Razorbacks dropped the series opener, which was the first game of a double header, 2-1 to the Gamecocks but bounced back and won the evening contest of the DH 4-1. Arkansas shut out 7-0 South Carolina in the rubber match on Saturday. The Rebels and Razorbacks will play on Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. CT/4:35 p.m. PT and on Wednesday at 6:05 p.m. CT/4:05 p.m. PT. Fans can watch the action live off of links at ArkansasRazorbacks.com (PPV).
SCOUTING THE REBELS No. 20 UNLV baseball (22-9/11-4 Mountain West) will wrap up its longest road stretch of the season by playing a two-game midweek series at Arkansas. The Rebels, who are also ranked No. 17 by Perfect Game, are most recently coming off of a series victory at Fresno State. The Rebels shut out Fresno State 6-0 on Friday, were shut out 2-0 on Saturday and again shut the Bulldogs out on Sunday 7-0 to win the series. Earlier in the week, UNLV faced Creighton in a rare Monday contest at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha, where the College World Series is held. The Rebels defeated the Bluejays 3-1 in a game that saw sustained 35 miles per hour winds and a temperature drop of nearly 30 degrees from first pitch to the end of the game. From the mound, Erick Fedde (6-1, 1.74 ERA) leads the Rebels and the Mountain West with 61 strikeouts in 57.0 innings of work. Kenny Oakley (2-2, 1.37 ERA) is second with 49 strikeouts in 46.0 innings pitched. Saturday starter John Richy (5-2, 2.79 ERA) is third with 48 strikeouts and his coming off of a complete game performance against the Fresno State where he struck out a career-high 11 batters. Sunday starter Bryan Bonnell (4-2, 1.61 ERA) was named the Mountain West Co-Pitcher of the Week after his complete game performance at Fresno State. He has struck out 26 batters this season, but what is more impressive is that he has surrendered only three walks in a team-high 61.2 innings of work. Brayden Torres (1-1, 1.77 ERA) leads the team with six saves and has struck out 23 batters in 20.1 innings of work. From the plate the Rebels are led by T.J. White, who is batting .322 and has scored a team-high 26 runs. He also leads the team on the base paths with nine steals. White is tied with Patrick Armstrong with a team-high 24 RBI. Justin Jones (.320), Joey Swanner (.313), Edgar Montes (.321) and Morgan Stotts (.300) are all hitting over the .300 mark for the Rebels this season.
SCOUTING THE RAZORBACKS Arkansas (20-12), which is ranked No. 24 by Perfect Game, enters the midweek series coming off of a series victory over No. 1 South Carolina. The Razorbacks dropped the series opener, which was the first game of a double header, but came back to win the second and third games. Before hosting the Gamecocks, Arkansas hosted Nebraska and split a midweek series with the Huskers. At home this season, the Razorbacks are an impressive 16-5 and have only lost one midweek game at Baum Stadium. Arkansas is similar to UNLV, in that the Razorbacks are anchored by their starting pitching. As a staff they own a 2.19 ERA, which is just slightly below UNLV's ERA of 2.19. The Rebels are projected to face Colin Poché (2-0, 1.27 ERA) on Tuesday and Alex Phillips (2-0, 2.25 ERA) on Wednesday. Poché has struck out 17 batters in 21.1 innings of work, but has a team-high 15 walks in 2014. Phillips has struck out 12 in 16.0 innings of work and has made five appearances, all starts, this season. From the plate, Arkansas has struggled and only has two players that are hitting about .300: Brian Anderson (.333) and Joe Serrano (.320). Anderson has driven in a team-high 26 runs and is tied for a team-high two home runs this year.
UNLV-ARKANSAS HISTORY UNLV leads the overall series against Arkansas 3-0. The two teams have only played one series against each other, and that was in 1994 in Las Vegas. This is the second team from the Southeastern Conference that the Rebels have played this season, the first being Tennessee in February.
ON DECK The Rebels will return home to host San Jose State for a three-game series beginning on Friday. The game time between the Rebels and Spartans was bumped up to 7:05 p.m. PT so that fans can attend the UNLV football spring game. Fans that attend the spring football game will get a free ticket to the baseball game. First pitch for Saturday and Sunday will be at 1:05 p.m. PT.
