LAS VEGAS (UNLVrebels.com) – After the UNLV baseball team (17-15, 5-10 MW) wrapped up their 10-game homestand earlier this week, the Rebels will next face off against San Diego State on the road this weekend.
SCHEDULE (all times in PST)
Friday, April 12 at 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 13 at 1:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 14 at 1:00 p.m.
MATCHUP HISTORY
All-time vs. San Diego State: 74-101
In San Diego State: 27-43
Current Streak: UNLV, 1
Last Meeting: Aztecs won two of three games in San Diego last sason.
BROADCAST INFO: Friday & Sunday's games will be streamed on the official Mountain West Network, while the Saturday contest is being streamed on the official GoAztecs Baseball Live! YouTube channel. Links to broadcasts as well as live stats are available on
unlvrebels.com/sports/baseball/schedule.
TICKETS: Tickets for this weekend's games can be found at
https://tinyurl.com/yyyerfpj.
THIS SEASON: The program earned their first set of Mountain West weekly honors in late February,
Austin Kryszczuk picking up the league's Player of the Week award and
Sam Simon being presented the Pitcher of the Week honor. The Rebels won all four games that week, including a win over Stanford, averaging 10.7 runs per game last week while only allowing three per contest.
UNLV's offense continues to stand as the highlight of the program, sticking as a top-two team in the conference (second) that stems from a strong core of intelligent batters. The team's RBI leader, Austin Kryszczuk, currently sits in the top spot of the Mountain West's RBI leaders at 40, also sitting inside DI's top-50 in the statistical category at 45th overall.
The Scarlet & Gray's holds some other top marks in other spots among the conference as well, Kade Higgins solidifying himself as one of the league's top-five hitters with 44 hits so far on the season the ninth-highest batting average at .349. Higgins also is tied for third in doubles (13) in the conference, Kryszczuk tied for third in the conference in home runs heading in this weekend.
The Rebels' pitching holds a handful of notable marks among the Mountain West Conference, Austin Cates distancing himself as the highest strikeout pitcher with 62 on the season. Holding a top-10 strikeout-to-walk ratio among all NCAA pitchers (seventh), he also sits second in the Mountain West in ERA with a minimum one inning pitched per game, tied third in the conference in runs allowed among those previously mentioned.
UNLV's win against then-no. 23 ranked Stanford was a landmark win for the program, their first win against a ranked opponent since 2019. The Rebels' have produced double-digit runs nine times in 2024, a feat they achieved 13 times last season.
ABOUT UTAH TECH: The Rebels will aim to have a strong weekend against the Aztecs at the plate, San Diego State holding the second-highest team ERA in the Mountain West. San Diego State does hold a pair of strong starters in Omar Serrano and Jacob Riordon, the latter only having allowed 26 hits so far this season, the lowest among Mountain West pitchers who have at least one inning pitched per team game.
The Aztecs' hitting is led by Colby Turner, the conference's leader in batting average this season (.378). Turner poses a threat to extra bases, also tied for the conference lead in triples this season with four overall. Shaun Montoya will also look to put some runs on the Rebels during their three-game set, crossing home plate for San Diego State 29 times in the 32 games he's played so far this season.
LAST YEAR: The Rebels had an overall record of 21-30 in the 2023 season, including a Mountain West record of 12-18. The program earned three Mountain West Player of the Week honors over the course of last season, including two Freshman of the Week mentions by then-freshman Reese Lueck and a Pitcher of the Week award for Noah Carabajal.
