UNLV Game Notes | San Jose State Notes

SAN JOSE, Calif. (UNLVRebels.com) - UNLV baseball (22-28, 8-19 Mountain West) will wrap up its regular season as the Rebels travel to San Jose State (12-41, 5-22 MW) for a three-game series. The teams will meet on Thursday and Friday at 6:00 p.m. PT and the series will conclude on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. PT. This will be the first meeting of the season between the two schools. All three games will be streamed online off of links on UNLVRebels.com/videos, thanks to the Mountain West Network. UNLV dropped its last four games, losing to Long Beach State in midweek action on May 5 and then was swept by Fresno State, losing 6-1, 8-3 and 6-2. Coming into last week, the Rebels had won six of seven games.

SCOUTING THE REBELS
- UNLV baseball (22-28, 8-19 Mountain West) has dropped its last four games. The Rebels suffered a midweek lost to Long Beach State before being swept by conference foe Fresno State.
- Before last week, UNLV traveled to San Diego, CA and fell 4-1 on Friday, but bounced back and defeated the Aztecs 3-2 on Saturday and 4-3 on Sunday. It was the Rebels first series victory at Tony Gwynn Field since 2007 and sixth time since 1978 that UNLV has captured a series in America's Finest City. It capped off a stretch where the Rebels had won six of seven games.
- In April, The Rebels defeated No. 5 Arizona State 7-6. UNLV's win over the Sun Devils was the first time the team captured a victory over a top-five team since 2003, when it beat No. 3 Cal State Fullerton. It was also the Rebels first win against ASU since 2002.
- The Rebels opened the season with a series victory over No. 23 Nebraska, but dropped its series opener with the Huskers in front of a record 3,173 fans 2-0. UNLV defeated the Huskers 5-3 on Saturday and then recorded a shut out with a 3-0 win on Sunday.
- It was the first series win over a ranked team since 2014 when the Rebels swept No. 24 New Mexico. It was also the first time since the Rebels joined the Mountain West that they shut out a ranked team.
- The starting pitching rotation for this weekend is expected to be Kenny Oakley (3-5, 3.39 ERA) on Thursday, D.J. Myers (2-3, 4.66 ERA) on Friday and Blaze Bohall (6-3, 3.90 ERA) on Saturday.
- Senior Joey Lauria (3-3, 3.65 ERA) owns the best strikeout-to-walk ratio on the team as he has recorded 49 punch outs against 13 walks in 44.1 innings of work. He has made a team-high 19 appearances this season.
- The Rebels' bullpen has been anchored by two of the best closers in school history: juniors Zack Hartman and Brayden Torres. Torres leads the team with four saves, while Hartman has recorded three.
- Senior Dylan Ellis leads the Rebels from the plate with a batting average of .333. Ellis, who has been a reserve for most of his career, also has 13 games with multiple hits, which is tied for the fourth most on the team.
- Senior Erik VanMeetren leads the team with five home runs and is hitting .301 on the year with 26 RBI.
- Edgar Montes (.314) is also hitting over .300 this season and ranks second on the team with three home runs and 28 RBI.

SCOUTING THE SPARTANS
- San Jose State (12-41, 5-22 Mountain West) comes into its series with UNLV having lost its last six games and eight of its last 10 games. Its two wins in that span came at Nevada, Reno (6-4 on April 26) and against Fresno State (7-3 on May 2)
- Ozzy Braff leads the Spartans with a batting average of .333 and is the only player for SJSU that is hitting over .300 this season.
- Shane Timmons leads the team with four home runs while Andre Mercurio leads the team with 23 RBI.
- The Spartans are expected to send Kalie Contrades (3-9, 5.65 ERA) to the mound on Thursday and Josh Nashed (3-4, 6.52 ERA) to the bump on Friday and Hilario Tover (1-5, 9.80 ERA) is the team's probable starter for Saturday.
- Turtle Kuhaulua (2-3, 4.96 ERA, 5 saves) leads the team with 43 strikeouts in 49.0 innings and has served as the team's closer.

UNLV - SAN JOSE STATE SERIES HISTORY
The Rebels and Bulldogs have met a total of 51 times and UNLV leads the series 31-20. This wil be the first meeting of the year between the two schools, but the Rebels won four of six contests last year. 2014 was the first time the two teams met since they were conference foes in 1999.

ON DECK
After its weekend series with the Spartans, UNLV will prepare for the Mountain West Championship Tournament, which will be played in Reno, Nev. The Rebels will find out who their first opponent in the tournament will following their series against San Jose State.