PHOENIX (UNLVRebels.com) – The UNLV baseball team (7-3) got a pair of two-out, RBI singles from Eric Bigani and Edarian Williams in the eighth inning to upend the No. 11 Arizona State Sun Devils (11-3), 10-9, at Phoenix Municipal Stadium Tuesday.
 
With the win, the Rebels have defeated the Sun Devils five out of the last six meetings. Moreover, the last three contests have taken place when ASU was ranked, with UNLV winning two of those and both of those victories were by 10-9 final scores: No. 9 on April 9, 2019 and No. 11 this afternoon.
 
The Scarlet & Gray was paced in the nonconference tilt by seven hits and seven RBI from Eric Bigani, Edarian Williams and Jack-Thomas Wold. Each of the three had multi-hit and multi-RBI outings, with Wold leading the Rebels with three hits, two RBI and two runs scored. Bigani and Williams had two hits apiece, with the former adding three RBI to the latter's two RBI and one run showing. UNLV also got RBI from Myles Denson, James Gamble and Austin Pfeifer in the affair.
 
Williams had a hand in the game's first and final runs, both of which propelled UNLV into the lead following each at-bat. In the second inning, he and Denson combined to smash back-to-back home runs two pitches apart off ASU starter Joe Hauser to give the Rebels an early 2-0 lead. Six innings later, in the eighth, Williams hit the first pitch he saw from ASU reliever Will Levine (2-1) through the right side of the infield for the would-be, game-winner, scoring Wold from second base.
 
Despite the game featuring a total of 19 runs and 27 hits, neither side could muster up more than a two-run advantage. UNLV led by two on three separate occasions (2-0, 3-1 and 8-6), while ASU only did so once (6-4).
 
UNLV's Conner Woods, a native of Tempe, Arizona, wound up getting the win, throwing the final 2.1 innings and striking out two of the nine batters he faced.
 
NOTES:
-The game featured a father vs. son matchup, as UNLV associate head coach and former ASU All-American Kevin Higgins faced off against his son, Kade, who got the start in left field for the Sun Devils and went 3-for-4 with one RBI and one run.
-ASU entered Tuesday's game ranked No. 11 by Perfect Game and No. 12 by Collegiate Baseball.
-There were runs scored in every inning, but the first and ninth; UNLV scored at least one run in six frames, while ASU scored in one in five.
-Five Rebels recorded multiple-hit games, with Alarcon (two hits) and Pfeifer (two) joining the aforementioned Bigani, Williams and Wold.
-UNLV's 1-2-3 batters scored six of the team's 10 runs, as each – Kryszczuk, Alarcon and Wold – touched home twice.
-UNLV used a total of six pitchers in the game, with Noah Beal getting his first start as a Rebel, while four straight Arizonans – Austin Bryan (Sahuarita), Ty Pohlmann (Gilbert), Troy Balko (Peoria) and Woods – took the mound in relief.
-With his fourth-inning single, Pfeifer extended his hitting streak to a team-high six games, while Alarcon extended his streak to five contests.
-With his third-inning double, Alarcon extended his reached-base streak to a team-high seven games, with Pfeifer reaching in six straight contests.
-With help from his three hits, Wold has a team-best seven multi-hit games on the year, while Alarcon and Bigani are closely behind with six and five, respectively.
-Wold's three-hit effort Tuesday upped his team-leading batting average to .409
 
UP NEXT: The Rebels are scheduled to face the Washington State Cougars in Las Vegas at Earl E. Wilson Stadium in a two-game, nonconference set next week on March 23-24. Both contests are afternoon matinees with first pitch scheduled for 12:05 pm each day.
 
UNLV was originally scheduled to host the San Jose State Spartans three times this upcoming weekend (Friday and Saturday); however, the Bay Area program halted baseball operations prior to the start of the 2021 season and, currently, there are no make-up dates set for the Mountain West series.