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No. 2 BYU Upsets Top-Seeded UNLV, 7-2, At MWC Baseball Tournament
Cougars advance to Championship Saturday.
May 27, 2005 SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - The No. 2-seeded BYU Cougars advanced to the championship round of the Mountain West Conference Baseball Championship tournament Friday afternoon at Franklin Covey Field. The Cougars defeated No. 1 seed UNLV 7-2, behind a complete-game from starting pitcher Dave Horlacher. Horlacher allowed just two runs on seven hits, while walking three and striking out three Rebel batters. He improved his record to 6-2 after the 134-pitch effort. BYU jumped out to a 3-0 lead. The Cougars got solo home runs from Ben Saylor and Ryan Chambers in the second inning. They added a single run in the third when Marcos Villezcas reached on an error and later scored when Brandon Taylor grounded into a double play. UNLV lit the scoreboard for the first time in the third. Matt Fry doubled down the left-field line and scored when J.C. Sibley followed with an RBI single to right. The Rebels pulled within one run, 3-2, on a Mike Cruz solo home run in the fifth. BYU pulled away in the eighth against the UNLV bullpen. Eric Brock, who took over for starter Efren Navarro Jr. in the third, ran into trouble to open the eighth. Kyle Tabeek took over and was only able to record one out on a sacrifice fly. Saylor's RBI single pushed Apana Nakayama across the plate. Kory Knell followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 5-2, scoring Taylor. The big blow in the eighth, however, came off the bat of Casey Cloward. In his first and only at-bat of the game, Cloward poked a double down the right-field line to score two. The double, which hit the chalk, scored Chambers and Saylor to give BYU a 7-2 advantage. Navarro suffered the loss for UNLV, falling to 4-4. He allowed three runs (two earned ) on four hits in two innings of work. Chambers paced the Cougars at the plate with a 3-for-4 performance, scoring two runs and driving in one. Saylor was 2-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBI. J.C. Sibley and Chris Bonnell each had two hits for UNLV and accounted for more than half of the Rebels' seven hits. UNLV faces No. 3-seeded San Diego State in an elimination game at 7 p.m. Friday night. BYU will await the winner of that game in Saturday's championship round, which begins at 3 p.m.
Game No. 8 Notes BYU has now won five straight MWC Tournament games played in the state of Utah. The Cougars are 2-0 in this year's tournament and won its final three games on the way to the 2002 tournament title at Larry H. Miller Field in Provo. UNLV saw its nine game MWC Tournament win streak snapped vs. BYU. The Rebels last loss in the MWC Tournament came at the hands of the Cougars in the semifinal round of the 2002 tournament. UNLV is now 12-7 in MWC Tournament games. The No. 1 seed has won the MWC Tournament two of the last four seasons, while appearing in the tournament finals four consecutive years. The No. 2 seed has three finals appearances and is 1-2 in those games, winning the title in 2000 (San Diego State). BYU's Jeff Hiestand went 0-for-2 from the plate today, but did draw a walk, marking the 43rd consecutive game and 47th out of his last 48th game overall that he has reached base. BYU's Andrew Law, son of Cougar head coach Vance Law entered the game as a pinch runner in the seventh inning, marking the fifth consecutive season that a coach/son duo has participated in the MWC Tournament. Law also coached son Tim in the 2001, 2002 and 2003 MWC Tournaments, while San Diego State head coach Tony Gwynn coached son Anthony Gwynn in the 2002 and 2003 MWC Tournaments. UNLV's Mike Cruz extended his hitting streak to 13 games after going 1-for-4 with an RBI and run scored vs. the Cougars, while Tyler Beranek had his hitting streak snapped at 12 games (0-for-3). GAME QUOTES BYU Head Coach Vance Law: "They feed on momentum and we needed to stop them in the 8th. We felt like we are going to win every game we play. We respect UNLV and SDSU and everyone else we play, but we just expect to win every game we play." "Our guys understood the situation that we had to win today or else win three in a row to win the tournament. I'm proud of our guys, sometimes you have a special group of guys that mesh really well, and this team has done that."
UNLV Head Coach Buddy Gouldsmith: "Toughest thing about facing BYU is that the average age of their players is 22-23-years- old. They have a maturity on that team that makes it hard to shake them up."
"They hit some balls hard too. I think that it is a good rivalry in the conference."
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