Columnist Dean Juipe: Soesbe looks ahead, likes what he sees

Dean Juipe

Monday, April 30, 2001 | 10:07 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

It's a disservice to the players, of course, but it would be easy to look at the UNLV baseball team and feel as if it has had a very nondescript season.

The Rebels win a couple, lose a couple and plod along in a certain mediocrity.

Fans aren't particularly plentiful and the team's exploits, however few, are rarely trumpeted by any facet of the media.

UNLV, it could be argued, is playing its 2001 season in a publicity vacuum.

But there's hope, and, perhaps, reason to raise the public's level of consciousness toward the Rebels for the simple reason 31 of their 35 players are underclassmen.

Baseball -- once a pleasant diversion at the university -- may yet rebound and at least approach the success it enjoyed 10 and 20 years ago.

"I'm happy enough with how we've played, all things considered," head coach Rod Soesbe said Sunday, although the Rebels' late collapse and 15-6 loss to Utah at Wilson Stadium curtailed their thoughts of a series sweep after a pair of one-run victories the preceding two days.

Soesbe is approaching his players as if exploring a mine, trying to get what he can out of them while polishing his most valued possessions for later display. He likes his team's composition and likes its spunk, as was evident on a beautiful day in which the usual mixture of families, old timers and students dotted a grandstand that rarely approaches capacity.

"We've kind of been inconsistent," Soesbe said, "but some things -- such as injuries -- are out of our control. Honestly, without the injuries I thought we might be six or eight games better, but I'm happy with the guys we've got and I like the fact they always come to play."

With seven games left on its schedule, including three at home with New Mexico this coming weekend, UNLV is 11-13 in the Mountain West Conference and 20-26 overall. It was 24-33 last season and 27-34 a season earlier, making it all but likely the program will experience a third consecutive losing season for the first time in its 35-year history.

But there really doesn't seem to be cause for alarm.

"We don't have the offensive players we once did, but I think we're getting good players," Soesbe said, when asked if recruiting had become increasingly difficult in recent years. "We had a great (recruiting) class this past year."

The Rebels could yet turn the current season into a memorable one, as no Mountain West team has distinguished itself and San Diego State relinquished the league lead over the weekend by losing three times to Brigham Young. Each of the Mountain West's six (baseball) members will participate in the conference tournament next month in San Diego and the winner has the automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs.

"We could still win it," Soesbe said, optimistic that his young club might find itself on a sweet roll in the season's final weeks.

Even if it doesn't, the groundwork has been laid and by this time next year the Rebels are expected to be contenders for a league title and a berth in an NCAA tournament for the first time since 1996.

Soesbe, his contract up after the current season, trusts he will be around to see it.