Thursday, April 2, 1998 | 8:20 a.m.
The Western Athletic Conference Tournament may be six weeks away, but the postseason begins this weekend for the UNLV baseball team.
After losing two of three games last weekend to WAC South quadrant rival Texas Christian in Fort Worth, the Rebels' quest to secure a berth in the six-team conference tournament has taken on a sense of urgency.
Going into this weekend's three-game series with New Mexico at Wilson Stadium, UNLV (23-13 overall, 6-6 in the WAC) has the seventh-best winning percentage in the WAC. Only the top six teams qualify for the May 13-16 conference tournament in San Diego.
"It's a real important series because we're in the same quad and we're a game ahead of them and we just haven't handled the people in our quad," Rebels head coach Rod Soesbe said of the New Mexico series, which begins Friday at 7:05 p.m.
UNLV, which also lost two of three to South quadrant-leading Rice at home last month, trails the Owls (14-1) and TCU (8-3) in the quadrant and is just 1 1/2 games ahead of New Mexico (5-8).
"We've got both TCU back here and Rice (on the road), and those guys are ahead of us so we can make some games up there. But the ones we need to take care of before that situation is New Mexico," Soesbe said. "It's a real pivotal series for us because both of us are right there together (in the standings).
"Every game from here on out is important."
In an attempt to start the New Mexico series on a strong note, Soesbe will send senior right-hander Jerimiah Tipton (5-0, 4.31 earned-run average) to the mound against the Lobos in Friday's series opener. Tipton picked up the win in each of the Rebels' lone victories Rice and TCU series.
"Tipton has thrown real well each time he has gone out on that Sunday, so we're going to try to get him in that first one and try to get that first win and hopefully build off of it," Soesbe said.
Junior right-hander Mike Zipser (5-3, 4.10) will get the nod in Saturday's 1:05 p.m. contest against New Mexico but Soesbe is unsure who will start Sunday's 1:05 p.m. series finale.
More of a concern for Soesbe is his team's offense, which was the least of his concerns the first six weeks of the season as it averaged more than nine runs a game. In last weekend's series against TCU, the Rebels scored only 17 runs and have averaged less than seven runs a game (low for college) in their past nine outings.
"We're taking too many pitches, trying to to get too good of a pitch," Soesbe said. "We're getting a little tentative and not staying aggressive and not getting a good pass at our pitch.
"We got 14 hits (Friday) but we really didn't swing the bats very well Friday and Saturday. It's kind of one of those funks so we're just spending more time working on the things we need to do hitting-wise."
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