Box Score

LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV baseball team (3-6 overall, 2-1 Mountain West) clinched the Mountain West Conference series against the San Jose State Spartans (5-8, 1-2) with a 4-2 victory Sunday at Earl E. Wilson Stadium. The Rebel offense was paced by a pair of RBI from Corey Pool and one apiece from Payton Squier and Nick Rodriguez, while Kenny Oakley tossed a complete game for his first win of the season.

"This was a big win for us," said head coach Stan Stolte. "San Jose State is much improved and played solid baseball all weekend. Kenny Oakley did what he always does when we really need a win; he puts us on his back and carries us. It was great to see Kyle Isbel have a great weekend for us. He's got a chance to make an impact for us as a freshman."

The Spartans got things started in the second when Shane Timmons and David Campbell recorded a single and a double, respectively. Oakley (1-2) got the next batter, Brendt Citta, to ground out to Rodriguez at short; however, Timmons scored from third on the ball hit deep into the hole. Oakley got out of the inning with back-to-back fly outs to right field.

An inning later, UNLV used a bases-loaded walk and a sacrifice fly in consecutive at-bats to push across two runs. After striking out the first batter of the frame, Matt Brown (0-3) got a bit wild and hit Cody Howard with a pitch and walked Kyle Isbel. Cooper Esmay followed the pair with a single through the left side to load the bases for Squier, who walked on five pitches for an RBI. With the bases still juiced, Pool stepped in and hit the first of two sacrifice flies on the day for the go-ahead run.

Pool also played a part in the Rebels' third and fourth runs of the game. In the sixth, he led off with a single and worked his way from base to base off of a sacrifice bunt, a fielding error and a run-scoring single by Rodriguez. In the seventh, he hit a sac fly to right field that plated Isbel, who was stationed on third after he opened the stanza with a triple to the gap in right-center field.

Besides its early run in the second, SJSU was kept off the scoreboard until it got a solo home run form Ozzy Braff in the seventh.

The Spartans managed to put runners in scoring position in both the eighth and ninth, but Oakley was able to work out of both innings unscathed. A pair of one-out singles and a wild pitch added some drama in the eighth, while a double, hit-by-pitch and a sac bunt did the same in the ninth. The senior hurler wound up getting a fly out and strikeout to end the eighth and a pair of fly outs to right to seal the win.

With today's complete-game effort, the Henderson, Nev., native has gone all nine frames three times in his career at UNLV. He struck out two against two runs and 11 hits Sunday.

Brown was saddled with the loss in six innings of work. He was touched for three runs (two earned) off of four hits. He struck out five, but walked three. He gave way to Graham Gomez in the seventh, and he gave up one run of two hits. Josh Goldberg tossed the eighth and only faced three batters.

UNLV will hit the road for its first midweek outings of the season with a two-game set at UC Riverside this upcoming Tuesday (6:00 pm) and Wednesday (3:00 pm). The two played twice last season with UCR winning in Riverside, 8-6 in 11 innings, and UNLV taking the return affair in Las Vegas, 5-4. UCR enters the week 5-7 overall after it lost three of four road games versus the Portland Pirates this weekend.

NOTES: Squier extended his hitting and reached-base streaks to seven games with an infield single in the seventh ... For the weekend: Isbel hit .455 (5-for-11) with three extra-base hits, four runs and one RBI; Squier hit .444 (4-for-9) with two runs and one RBI and Pool hit .375 (3-for-8) with five RBI and two runs.