Box Score

LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV baseball team (1-4) suffered a 13-1 setback to the West Virginia Mountaineers (4-1) Saturday afternoon at Earl E. Wilson Stadium. The visitors from Morgantown struck first with two runs in the third, while the Rebels got one back an inning later. The Mountaineers; however, were the only side to produce any offense from the fifth on as they pushed at least one run across in each subsequent frame.

The contest began as a pitcher's duel between WVU's Ross Vance (2-0) and UNLV's Dean Kremer (0-1). The pair combined to retire the first 12 batters that stepped up to the plate, including five by strikeout.

All of that changed in the third when the Mountaineers strung together three singles and a walk in a stretch of five batters. KC Huth and Kyle Gray got the offensive started with back-to-back singles before Kremer struck out the next batter. Unfortunately, Kremer followed that whiff with a walk to Kyle Davis to load the bases. Darius Hill, who had three hits and four RBI in Friday's game, delivered a two-run single to knock two of the runners home.

UNLV answered back one inning later with a solo home run by Justin Jones to leadoff the fourth. Jones' hit snapped a stretch of 10 straight batters retired -- six by strikeout -- by Vance to start the affair.

Payton Squier tried to keep the fourth going for the Rebels with a one-out single two batters after Jones, but he was left stranded at second when the inning came to a close. Squier was the first of five runners left on base for the game, three of which were stranded in scoring position.

"Once we got Dean out of there, the game just got away from us, and they just basically beat us up pretty good," said head coach Stan Stolte. "Outside of yesterday, the offense hasn't been where we want it. Obviously, (Vance) was very good today. He handled our right-handers as well as our left-handers. If you don't have a good approach, he will eat you up, and we didn't have a very good approach today."

WVU pushed extended its lead to three runs after five frames and to five after six with help from consecutive two-run efforts. Davis began the separation in the fifth with a solo home run before Hill and Cole Austin teamed up for back-to-back doubles. The Mountaineers strung together another three-hit stanza in the sixth with a leadoff double by Shaun Corso followed by RBI singles from Huth and Gray.

The Big 12 Conference squad padded its lead in the last third of the contest with a total of seven runs; five of those came in the eighth.

Vance struck out eight and earned the win in seven innings of work. He was touched for only one run off of three hits and one walk. His teammates, Jeff Hardy and Nick Wernke, tossed the final two innings and combined to allow two hits and one walk against one strikeout.

Kremer was tagged with his first loss as a Rebel in 5.1 innings of action. He allowed six runs (five earned) off of eight hits. He struck out seven, but walked one.

Tevita Gerber, Chase Maddux, Corey Wilson and Ryan Hare all pitched in relief of UNLV. The quartet went 3.2 innings and surrendered seven runs off of nine hits with three walks and one strikeout.

UNLV and WVU close out their three-game set Sunday at 1:05 pm. The Rebels will send Kenny Oakley (0-1, 12.00 ERA) to the mound against the Mountaineers' B.J. Myers (1-0, 0.00 ERA).