Pitching keeping UNLV in ball games

Dean Juipe

Monday, March 2, 1998 | 4:55 a.m.

If they weren't quite so naturally reserved, Rod Soesbe and Mel Stottlemyre Jr. would each need a tailor.

A tailor?

Yep, to re-sew the buttons that popped with pride off their UNLV baseball jerseys following a weekend in which the Rebels took two of three games from the Western Athletic Conference's preseason championship favorite, Fresno State.

Soesbe, UNLV's second-year head coach, and Stottlemyre, his first-year pitching coach, may not have been outwardly beaming Sunday after seeing their team come from behind for a second consecutive day to upend the Bulldogs. But, in their own way, they were excited not only for the victories but for the impressive start to the season that has the Rebels ranked an upwardly mobile No. 22 in one national poll.

UNLV is 14-5 and looking nothing at all like the team that went 24-31 last year.

"I'm pretty happy with the club," Soesbe understated. "When we're focused we can be really good, we really can."

The Rebels looked pretty good in slipping past Fresno State 6-5 in the series finale at Wilson Stadium. The picturesque afternoon game drew a smallish but friendly crowd of 552, proving, if nothing else, that at least 552 people in the city didn't care who won the Las Vegas 400 auto race.

Like the day before when the Rebels rallied from a 4-1 deficit to win 5-4, they were down 5-3 in this one before scoring single runs in the fourth, sixth and eighth innings to secure the victory.

Excellent work from the bullpen keyed the win, as Fresno scored all five of its runs in the fourth inning off UNLV starter Bryan Gidge.

"I've got all the confidence in the world in these guys," Stottlemyre said of his 11-man staff. "Everybody seems to have a role and we'll only get better."

Mike Lopez didn't get the win or the save but he was the savior. The junior left-hander finished up for Gidge in the rocky fourth and worked three scoreless innings in which he allowed only two hits.

Andy McCulloch, a sophomore right-hander, picked up on Lopez's lead and put two more scoreless innings in the book before closer Jimmy Smith was summoned to get the game's final two outs and his fourth save.

"One thing we did in the fall that they never did here before was hold daily scrimmages," Stottlemyre said. "That allowed us to see exactly what we had and it allowed us to go into the season without having to play guessing games with our pitchers."

The former major-league pitcher appears to be getting results from a staff that only a year ago had a horrendous 7.43 ERA. The current ERA is a far more manageable 4.62.

"When I was thinking about taking this job I gave some thought to the team and realized I might be getting thrown into the fire with a mediocre staff," he said. "I knew it was either a mediocre staff or they just didn't get the job done."

That staff hasn't changed much in terms of personnel, as there are only three new faces this season. But it is responding to Stottlemyre and giving the Rebels a chance to win every time out.

"All the credit goes to Mel," Soesbe said. "He's taught 'em how to pitch and done a good job of fitting guys into roles. All 11 guys know they have to be ready."

Stottlemyre flashed something of a quick hook in using five pitchers to keep the Bulldogs in check. Gidge, for instance, went into the fourth with a no-hitter but left after getting only one out in that troublesome inning. And Smith was brought in to relieve McCulloch (3-0) even though he hadn't allowed a baserunner.

Offensively, UNLV is averaging 9.2 runs per game because it has an assortment of contact hitters and a little pop in the middle of its order. The four players at the bottom of the order provided the Sunday RBIs as Jesse Pryor had a three-run triple, Eliott Sarabia twice singled home runs and Bobby Pierce added a run-scoring single.

It was Sarabia's line single to right that plated Pierce, who had walked and moved up on a wild pitch, with what proved to be the winning run in the bottom of the eighth.

Each team finished with seven hits. Fresno, 5-11 and not playing the type of ball that made it the coaches' preseason choice to win the WAC tournament, was led by Jason Bell's three-run homer in the fourth.