UNLV Olympic sports notebook: Soesbe remains optimistic on Rebels’ chances

Thursday, April 12, 2001 | 10:05 a.m.

Going into the season, Rod Soesbe had high hopes for this year's UNLV baseball team.

Halfway through the Mountain West Conference season, Soesbe still believes his team can contend for the conference tournament title despite its 15-21 overall record and 6-9 MWC mark.

"It's a young ballclub but they're getting better," Soesbe said. "We're playing three freshmen all the time and sometimes four and we're bringing freshmen out of the bullpen.

"It's going to be a good team. It was a good recruiting class, it's just that they're young and it's a big jump for them, it really is. But we're still going to get it done, I really believe that."

In addition to the normal growing pains associated with starting so many underclassmen, Soesbe has had to deal with injuries to his starting pitching and, now, losing starting third baseman Tony Schuler to a separated shoulder.

"We're in a situation now where we're getting our staff back, we're starting to get a little consistency and we're starting to hit the ball a little bit better," Soesbe said.

"We haven't been in a situation where we've had the same three starting pitchers on back-to-back weekends (but) we will this weekend."

The Rebels will begin the second half of conference play on Friday with the first of three games at conference co-leader San Diego State (21-14 overall, 10-5 in the MWC). UNLV is fifth in the six-team conference but is only two games out of third place and four games behind San Diego State and BYU.

Junior right-hander Ryan Olson (2-2, 3.72) will rejoin the Rebels' rotation following an injury and start Friday's game. He will be followed in the rotation by sophomore right-hander Jared Bonnell (2-3, 6.80) and junior right-hander Courtney Hall (5-5, 6.43).

"We've got Olson back, our number one starter, and he's pitched well the last couple of times out so that's a big factor for us," Soesbe said. "We still don't have (Jake) Gann, our closer, and we may not have him until the end of the regular season.

"We want to finish up here strong and get 30 wins in this thing. We really need to go down to San Diego and take two of three for sure, if we don't sweep it. We've given a couple of games away ... but if we can get a little bit more consistent as these kids get a little more mature and get the pitching staff completely healthy, we'll be all right."

The Rebels, 3-3 in conference play and 22-18 overall, travel to Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, Utah and BYU for doubleheaders before returning home on May 4 to host New Mexico.

The Rebels have two weeks to get healthy and prepare for the Mountain West Conference Championship Tournament, which will be played April 26-28 in Salt Lake City.

UNLV fell to 7-11 overall and closed out its 2001 home season with a 3-10 record. The Rebels will conclude the regular season this weekend in San Diego with matches against conference rivals Air Force and New Mexico.

The Rebels won two events in their own meet as sophomore Tianika Sharrieff won the high jump and Nickeisha Charles captured the 400 meters.