UNLV plays to the final inning of 18-1 loss to Ohio State

Monday, March 9, 1998 | 10:09 a.m.

It must have seemed as if UNLV baseball head coach Rod Soesbe is a glutton for punishment.

Trailing 18-1 to Ohio State Sunday evening, Soesbe could have invoked college baseball's new mercy rule which allows two teams to forego playing the final two innings if one team is head by 12 or more runs after seven innings.

Soesbe elected to play the championship game of the Coors Desert Classic to its conclusion and by doing so, he may have found the third starting pitcher for which he has been searching for the past few weeks.

Junior right-hander Bill Scheffels tossed the final 3 1/3 innings of the Rebels' 18-1 loss to the Buckeyes, allowing only two hits and striking out seven. Scheffels' strong relief performance, coupled with Bryan Gidge's ineffective start, may have earned Scheffels a starting assignment later this week when the Rebels visit Grand Canyon University for a three-game series.

"We were going to play," Soesbe said of his decision to play the final two innings of Sunday's rout. "We needed to do that because it gives us an opportunity to look at a couple other kids.

"It gave us a chance to give Scheffels a couple innings because Gidge is still not throwing like he's capable of throwing."

Gidge, who started the season with two wins, struggled with his mechanics and didn't make it out of the first inning Sunday. He faced five batters without getting an out as he gave up two hits, walked two and had a batter reach on an error. Gidge (2-1) was charged with five runs (four earned) in zero-plus innings.

"He's not sore," Soesbe said of Gidge, who battled arm arm injury earlier this season. "But because of the amount of time that he has (lost), his mechanics are all messed up, he just doesn't have the feel for it.

"He was our best pitcher in his first two starts, then he got sore and we shelved him and now he has just lost a feel for everything and he hasn't been able to get it back."

Other than Scheffels' performance in relief, there weren't any bright spots for the Rebels, who fell to 17-7 with their worst defeat of the season and most lopsided loss since last March 29 when they were drubbed 22-1 by San Diego State.

Ohio State (7-4) sent 10 batters to the plate in the first inning and scored seven runs on only three hits. The Buckeyes added three runs in the second and three in the fourth to take a 13-0 lead.

That was more than enough support for starter Andy Lee, who held the Rebels to one run on nine hits and struck out eight in seven innings. UNLV scored its lone run in the fourth on back-to-back doubles by Jesse Pryor and Sean Campbell.

"We're disappointed in this loss ... but we're still 17-7," Soesbe said. "A loss is a loss whether you get beat 18-1 or 2-1 so it ain't nothing to get all excited about."