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Top-seeded UNLV Slides Past Utah At MWC Baseball Tournament Rebels advance with 5-3 win.
May 26, 2005 SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - A ninth-inning rally for the No. 5-seeded University of Utah baseball team came up short as the No. 1-seeded UNLV Rebels held on for the 5-3 win here at the Mountain West Conference baseball tournament Thursday afternoon at Franklin Covey Field. UNLV (31-26) advances to play BYU on Friday at 3 p.m., while the Utes fall to 19-35 for the year and will face the winner of the New Mexico/San Diego State game Friday at 11 a.m. The Rebels captured a 5-0 lead by plating two unearned runs in the first inning. UNLV pushed another three runs across the plate with an RBI single in the fifth and a two-RBI single in the sixth. Utah clawed its way back into the game on a three-run home run by John Welsh in eighth. The Utes attempted to tie the ballgame by putting two runners in scoring position in the ninth. But, reliever Kyle Tabeek got the Utes' Ryder Olsen and Adam Frank to strike out to end the game. UNLV starter Matt Luca (5-6) got the win while Tabeek picked up his seventh save of the year. Jason Price took the loss in falling to 4-8. Clayne Garrett and Joe Mozeleski led Utah with a pair of hits each. Both went 2-for-4. A trio of Rebels had two-hit outings as well. Ryan Bird led the way with a 2-for-3 effort and two RBI.
Game No. 5 Notes The No. 1 seed is now 15-7 all-time in MWC Tournament games, while the No. 5 seed is 5-11. UNLV's Mike Cruz extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a first inning double vs. the Utes. With his first strikeout of the day, Utah's Jason Price set a new Utah career record for strikeouts, surpassing Lance Ericksen's (1995-1999) total of 227. Price, who finished with five strikeouts vs. UNLV, now has 232 career strikeouts. As a team, Utah hit .346 (75-for-217) vs. UNLV in six games this season, but were held to a .206 (7-for-34) batting average in today's contest.
Game No. 5 Quotes UNLV Head Coach Buddy Gouldsmith: "Without question, we haven't had it easy all year. We would have liked to have three up, three down in the ninth inning, but they made it interesting." "We talked about [pulling Luca] it, but felt like we were in a good position and didn't expect a three-run homerun to make it close." "We wanted to do everything to win today and everyday. It's hard to win twice on the last day, and there's nothing harder in college baseball than to win a double header."
Utah Head Coach Bill Kinneberg: "A loss is a loss. You get a little bit more frustrated when the tying run in on second and you can't drive him in. UNLV's bullpen gets better as the game goes on and they have showed us that all year long."
"It was strike one every time at bat. Luca pitched great and hardly pitched from behind. We have to put the ball in play and pick our pitches to hit and I felt that we had that chance, but didn't pull through."
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