Streaking Rebels dust Air Force

Dean Juipe

Monday, March 8, 1999 | 10:02 a.m.

Euphoric after a weekend sweep of the Air Force Academy, UNLV baseball coach Rod Soesbe is telling his players the season has started anew.

After Sunday's 15-3 victory at Wilson Stadium, the Rebels are 9-13 and have won five of their last six games.

They also recorded wins by scores of 13-1 and 15-3 over the Falcons, who came into the series on a four-game winning streak but left with a 9-12 ledger and a spot in the Western Athletic Conference cellar.

Back-to-back wins by identical scores and 12-run margins had Soesbe painting an optimistic picture as the Rebels opened WAC play 3-0.

"We're just starting our season again," he said. "That's the way we're approaching it. I'm telling the guys we're starting over and to not worry about anything that happened before. That's all we're doing."

Yet over the course of the season's first 22 games the Rebels have picked up some identifiable traits. They're obviously a good-hitting team, averaging 8.8 runs per game. And they're also questionable in terms of pitching, having surrendered 9.0 runs per game.

But by holding Air Force to 20 hits in three games, Soesbe is hoping his mound crew is coming around.

"I'm more excited about our pitching right now than anything else," he said. "Our starters are starting to take us into the late innings now, which they weren't doing earlier."

Sunday it was Western High alum Andy McCulloch in the pitching spotlight, and he picked up where fellow starters Bryan Gidge (Friday) and Joe Maruffi (Saturday) left off.

McCulloch, a junior, improved to 2-2 by going seven innings and holding the Falcons to two runs. When they say a pitcher "scattered" the opposition's hits they are referring to a performance like the one McCulloch turned in, as he did not allow more than one hit in any inning before giving way to Luke Anderson in the eighth and Bill Scheffels in the ninth.

McCulloch complemented his outing by striking out seven and, true to form, walking only one. In 47 innings this season, he has walked only seven.

While Air Force was being handcuffed by the Rebels' pitchers, UNLV was scoring almost at will in finishing off the sweep in front of 250 fans who were indifferent toward what was going on out at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Rebels put six runs on the board in the second inning to take command and they finished the afternoon with 20 hits.

Every UNLV starter had at least one hit, and first baseman Brian Hertel and third baseman Chris Gillette each had four. Hertel drove in the Rebels' first run with a solo homer in the second and he also homered with the bases empty in the fifth.

Asked about his two-homer game, Hertel -- who came into the contest without a home run this season -- seemed underwhelmed if anything. He said he had two two-homer games last season while playing at College of the Sequoias (junior college) in California.

Ryan Ludwick and Ryan Hamill also had home runs for the Rebels, each of which drove in three runs.

Matt Stoner added a three-hit game as UNLV made life miserable for Air Force starter Matt Kaercher, a freshman who fell to 2-2 and who had a pitching line that will haunt him the remainder of the season. In 5.1 innings, Kaercher gave up 14 earned runs on 18 hits.

As far as he and his teammates were concerned, the Rebels were the Bronx Bombers.

"I'm not saying their pitching was the best, but we can hit and we can handle top pitching too," Soesbe said. "This is a good hitting ballclub, good from top to bottom. We've seen three or four top pitchers this season and we've never been completely shut down."

Hertel (7-12), Gillette (10-14) and Ludwick (7-9) each had exceptional weekends at the plate as the Rebels tuned up for Brigham Young. The Cougars will be at Wilson Stadium for three games (Thursday through Saturday) this week.