UNLV tramples Santa Clara in opener

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Feb. 25, 2000 | 10:12 a.m.

The scoreboard at Earl E. Wilson told the story Thursday night for UNLV's baseball team.

"It's nice to see that," senior first baseman Tony DeMarco said, pointing to the 12 runs and 21 hits the Rebels amassed in breezing past Santa Clara in their first game of the 20th annual Coors Desert Classic. "This is the fun part of baseball."

Before Thursday night's 12-6 victory over the Broncos, things hadn't been very much fun for the Rebels.

UNLV (4-10) had lost seven straight games, including a 19-0 loss at Cal State Fullerton last Sunday.

On the long six-hour bus ride home on Monday, players got together to "clear the air," according to DeMarco.

UNLV coach Rod Soesbe then held another players meeting before Tuesday's practice.

"It's been a tough year of baseball for us so far," DeMarco said.

"We needed to clear some things out. We decided to kind of start over. The season is still young. We still have 40 more games. Maybe we didn't get off to the start we would have liked, but there's still a long ways to go."

Soesbe spent much of Tuesday's practice working with players in the batting cages. That extra hitting work seemed to pay big dividends on Thursday night.

DeMarco had his second five-hit game of the season and fourth of his career while designated hitter Trent Kitsch and shortstop Zach Strong added four hits apiece. DeMarco and Strong both drove in three runs while Kitsch blasted his third home run of the season in the seventh.

"We swung the bats well today," Soesbe said. "The kids played hard and enthusiastic and that's something we wanted to see out of them."

Sophomore right-hander Joe Maruffi upped his record to 2-1 by pitching six innings of six-hit ball, allowing three earned runs. Freshman Donnie Watts did an excellent job of pitching out of a no-out, bases-loaded jam in the seventh and went on to pitch the final three innings to earn the first save of his college career.

The Rebels don't have much time to celebrate their victory, however. They continue tourney play today at 5 p.m. against Nevada-Reno at Wilson Stadium.

"It would have been nice to save a few of those hits for (tonight)," Soesbe said. "You know Nevada will be fired up for that game. And they're throwing their ace (senior right-hander Chad Qualls)."

In other opening-day games on Thursday, Oregon State defeated West Virginia (9-6) and Nevada-Reno (9-5) while Cal State Northridge topped Michigan State 9-6.

The tournament concludes on Sunday.