March 9, 2016 Box Score
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV baseball team (5-6 overall) scored the game-winning run in the eighth inning to claim a 5-4 decision over the UC Riverside Highlanders (5-9) Wednesday afternoon. The victory handed the Rebels a sweep of the two-game season series with both contests played at the Riverside Sports Complex decided in the eighth inning.
With the score knotted at 4-all and one out, A.J. VanMeetren got the eighth started with a six-pitch walk issued by Jacob Worrell (0-2). Keyon Allen replaced VanMeetren as a pinch runner and quickly swiped second base to put the go-ahead run in scoring position. Vince Taormina joined Allen on the base paths after he was walked on six pitches. With two on, Max Smith doubled down the right-field line to plate Allen for the eventual game-winning score. After the second out had been recorded UNLV loaded the bases with a walk to Kyle Isbel, but Worrell worked out of the jam with a strikeout.
UNLV head coach Stan Stolte went to the bullpen and called upon Corey Wilson to protect the one-run lead in the bottom of the eighth. Wilson did not allow a hit, as he faced the minimum six batters to earn his first save of the season.
Ryan Hare (1-0) picked up his first career win in four innings of scoreless relief. Hare entered the affair in the fourth inning and struck out five against two hits and two walks. The freshman faced a bit of adversity in the fourth when UCR loaded the bases behind a single and a pair of walks; however, he recorded the third out with a fly out to right field.
"That was a great effort by the team to hang in there and come out on top," said Stolte. "To win two games on the road in California isn't easy. We're starting to turn the corner mentally and need to continue the progression. Hare and Wilson throwing six shut out innings was big, and the big hit by the freshman (Smith) was clutch. At times we had four freshmen on the field and they all contributed."
The Scarlet & Gray opened the scoring with a run-scoring single by Taormina in the second inning. Corey Pool scored from second base after he had initially reached on a single.
UCR countered in its half of the second with four straight base hits after two outs had been recorded by UNLV starter Blaze Bohall. Colby Schultz and Steven Mercado II had a single apiece before Casey Worden and Mark Contreras produced a pair of doubles. Worden's plated one runner, while Contreras' brought home two.
UNLV pulled even in the third at 3-all with an RBI double from Payton Squier and a sacrifice fly by Pool. Isbel and Cooper Esmay led off the stanza with a single and a walk, respectively, right before Squier's at-bat.
The Highlanders had an answer for the Rebels' third-inning production with a run of their own off Michael Farris' groundout.
Bohall threw the first three innings for UNLV with a no-decision. He gave up four runs off of eight hits, while strikeout two and walking one.
UCR sent five pitchers to the mound with Worrell on the wrong end of the decision. He threw 1.2 innings, but allowed one run off of one hit. He also walked three and fanned three. In all, the Highlander hurlers surrendered five runs off of nine hits with five walks and five strikeouts.
The Rebels return to Earl E. Wilson Stadium this weekend for a head-to-head tussle between two schools that claim Scarlet & Gray as their official colors. The Ohio State Buckeyes will square off against UNLV four times beginning with Friday's 6:05 pm tilt, which is also billed as "Baseball Hat Giveaway Night" -- while supplies last.
NOTES: Squier extended his hitting and reached-base streaks to nine games with one hit ... Pool upped his team-best sacrifice fly total to three ... UNLV has scored the game-winning run in the sixth inning or later in all five of its victories, and three of those have come in the eighth (San Jose State on March 4 and both at UCR), one in the 12th (Texas on Feb. 19) and one in the sixth (SJSU on March 6) ... UNLV improved to 5-0 when it holds its opposition to five or less runs and pushed its mark to 5-4 when it scores five or less times ... UNLV is now 5-0 in games decided by two or less runs (3-0 in one-run games, 2-0 in two-run games).
