Monday, April 6, 1998 | 8:38 a.m.
UNLV managed to overlook an atrocious start and an equally awful umpire's decision in rallying to defeat New Mexico 13-11 Sunday afternoon.
Now the Rebels must be careful not to overlook Air Force.
The UNLV baseball team remained in contention for the sixth and final berth into next month's Western Athletic Conference Tournament by taking two of three from South quadrant rival UNM. But the Rebels may have a more difficult task this weekend.
Air Force comes to town with a 4-11 conference mark (10-24 overall) and the Rebels (8-7, 25-14) must find a way to reverse what has become a troubling trend this season.
"That was a big win," Rebels head coach Rod Soesbe said after the Rebels rallied from an early 8-0 deficit. "But we've got Air Force coming in here and we just can't let up.
"That's the one thing that concerns me because when we haven't played well, it's because we've overlooked people. Some of the teams we should have beat, we didn't show up and have that enthusiasm. We've just got to work hard and make sure we don't overloook (Air Force)."
If the Rebels can play with the same intensity they had for the final six innings Sunday, they should have little trouble this weekend with the Falcons.
After falling behind 8-0 in the top of the second inning, UNLV rallied to take a 10-9 lead after six innings, then erased an 11-10 deficit with a pair of runs in the seventh when Tony DeMarco doubled in a pair.
"We played about as bad as we could for two innings and then we battled back," Soesbe said. "It was a good character builder for them to come back and get back into it; they could have quit early because we didn't play well.
"We didn't pitch well, we didn't play well, we didn't swing the bat well until we got going in the second inning. It would have been easy to just lay down and give up but they battled back and that shows me something."
Soesbe had to watch the final two innings from beyond the left-field fence after being ejected in the bottom of the seventh following a botched call by the umpiring crew with the Rebels trailing 11-10.
With Chris Adolph on second and A.C. Smith on first, Eliott Sarabia hit a grounder to third. The Lobos' Scott Candelaria fielded the ball and forced Smith at second, but Cory Robbins couldn't get a throw off to first to complete the double play.
New Mexico head coach Rich Alday argued that Smith had intentionally tried to take out second baseman and an automatic double play should have been invoked per the collegiate rule.
Third-base umpire Ken Bayne, who at first made the non-call on Smith's slide at second, then consulted with first-base umpire Dale Williams and reversed his decision, calling Sarabia out at first.
Soesbe heatedly argued the call at length with Bayne and Williams before finally being tossed from the game.
"What I complained about was that Kenny was there on the call and it was his call and he let it get reversed after someone else came in," Soesbe said.
"It's (Bayne's) call and then he goes down and asks for help on it. He said, 'Well, I'll just get an interpretation of the rule.' I said 'B.S., you've got to know the rules.'."
archive
