San Diego State hands Rebels 4th straight loss

Tim Graham

Monday, May 3, 1999 | 11:07 a.m.

UNLV's baseball team set a few goals for its Sunday afternoon game against San Diego State:

* Avoid an embarrassing three-game sweep at home.

* Start playing like the team that went on the road and swept Texas Christian the previous weekend.

* Give the seven seniors a victory in their final home game.

The Rebels fulfilled nary a one.

SDSU completed its sweep at Wilson Stadium with a 12-4 victory. It was UNLV's fourth straight loss.

"Very upsetting, disappointing," senior shortstop Elliott Sarabia said. "There are no other words to describe how I feel. Losing the last three games at UNLV hurts.

"They came in here pumped up to take three games from us at our home. We didn't rise to the occasion."

The Rebels are 25-29 overall and 13-11 in the Western Athletic Conference, where they remain in third place. The top six teams qualify for the WAC tournament May 19-22 in Fresno, Calif.

UNLV has six regular-season games remaining: three at New Mexico this weekend and three more at Fresno State May 14-16.

"It's going to be tough for us on the road," Rebel coach Rod Soesbe said. "With New Mexico we don't match up home run-wise in their high altitude. Our home run total is down and they can drive the ball out of the yard."

SDSU proved it could drive the ball, too.

Rebel pitchers gave up five home runs on Sunday, with four coming from the bottom third of the Aztecs' batting order. No. 9 hitter Edgar Gonzalez belted two.

UNLV's Joe Maruffi, the emergency starter in place of flu-suffering Ryan Olson, pitched six innings and allowed four earned runs on 10 hits, including two home runs.

Toby Harris (2-5) absorbed the loss after relieving Maruffi. He allowed a run on two hits and a walk in two-thirds of an inning.

The Rebel offense didn't click either.

"Before this series there were probably three times all year we thought we really didn't swing it," Soesbe said. "This weekend doubled that number."

Brian Hertel, who flew out with the bases loaded to end the first inning, cut into a 2-0 Aztec lead with a solo home run in the fourth. It was the Rebel first baseman's sixth blast of the season.

The Aztecs went ahead 3-1 in the fifth inning, when Maruffi uncorked a wild pitch that bounced 10 feet away from catcher Harold Betts. Robert Womack charged home from third and easily could have been caught as Maruffi had the plate covered. But Betts inexplicably ignored his pitcher and unsuccessfully tried to tag Womack out himself.

UNLV took its first lead of the series when Betts smacked a two-out, two-run double down the left-field line in the sixth inning, scoring Hertel and Matt Stoner to make the score 4-3. Stoner tied the game one batter earlier with a single that scored Nate Kaup, who had walked.

But the lead didn't last long. Maruffi surrendered a solo shot to Gonzalez.

"When (Gonzalez) hit that home run, I said 'So much for that lead.' " Sarabia said.

The homer knocked Maruffi out of the game before he was able to induce an out in the seventh inning. A two-out single by Tyler Echelbarger off reliever Toby Harris put SDSU ahead 5-4.

"We were still in it then," Soesbe said. "But we gave up even more runs, and that made it tough."