LAS VEGAS (UNLVrebels.com) – The UNLV baseball team (5-4) kicked off their second-consecutive home weekend on Friday night, taking on the Milwaukee Panthers (1-6) at Earl E. Wilson Stadium. The Hustlin' Rebels traded punches midway through the contest, but a screaming home run from
Cooper Sheff made the difference and gave the Scarlet & Gray the win.
UNLV collectively earned 11 hits in the contest, spread between seven different batters in the Rebel lineup. Sheff had two for himself that included his home run, his other hit being a single to right field in the third inning to put
Elijah Rodriguez on third base. Rodriguez picked up two hits in the contest as well, the previously-mentioned baserunning was credited via a double and picked up a single late in the eighth inning.
JP Hefft earned his pair by a single in the first inning and in his next at-bat in the third,
Chase Gallegos being the final Rebel to collect two hits by way of the second and eighth innings.
The Rebel pitching staff produced a great outing as well,
Carson Lane picking up the start and reaching a career-high 10 strikeouts through five innings of work.
Will Marquart was the first of two relief pitchers to throw on the mound for the Scarlet & Gray, the graduate student producing a season-high 2.2 innings to hold the Panthers to their three runs for the sixth, seventh and most of the eighth innings.
Alex Overbay closed for the Hustlin' Rebels for his first save of the season, striking out three batters in his four-out outing and only allowing one walk in the process.
"Really hard-fought game by both sides. Their [first] two pitchers did a nice job keeping them in the game" commented head coach
Stan Stolte. "Lane gave us five solid innings, then Marquart and Overbay really pitched well while Sheff had the big hit for us again. We still need to make a couple plays defensively and throw more strikes."
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Sheff's game-leading long ball was his second of the year, hitting them in back-to-back contests and earning hits on four of his last eight at bats.
- Marquart and Overbay both now have held batters this season to under a .150 average, both Marquart (.091) and Overbay (.120) holding four appearances so far this season.
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Cole Koniarsky's single in the bottom of the third inning now extends his hit-streak to four consecutive games.
- The Rebels' record through the last six games now sits at 4-2 to open the weekend.
UP NEXT
UNLV will kick off a double-header against the Panthers on Saturday, March 1, the first pitch of the first game kicking off at 12:05 p.m. PT as a seven-inning contest. Once that first match concludes, the teams will take a quick break before starting the second game for a nine-inning round afterwards. To get updates on all things Hustlin' Rebels, links to the season's games can be found on the team's
schedule page. You can also get live updates on how the Scarlet & Gray are faring on the team's
X (formerly known as Twitter),
Facebook and
Instagram accounts.
