Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Rebels whipped at NCAA regional

TEMPE, Ariz. -- While the record will show the UNLV baseball team was eliminated from the NCAA baseball tournament on Sunday in a 16-1 loss to Arizona State, the Rebels' hopes of qualifying for their first College World Series evaporated long before Sunday's first pitch at arid Diablo Stadium.

Their only chance to make things a little hairy for the vaunted Sun Devils -- and it was only a slim one at that -- was snuffed Saturday night against New Mexico State when starting pitcher Matthew Luca's tendinitis flared up in the first inning.

UNLV had to call on No. 4 starter Giovanni Pupa -- its last remaining live arm -- a day ahead of schedule to keep the Aggies, who had upset them on the first day of the tournament, from doing it again.

That forced UNLV coach Jim Schlossnagle to play a hunch and go with Adam Lesko, who hadn't logged more than two innings in a game since April 5, in the regional final.

Let's just say it wasn't the ideal situation for the program's biggest game since 1996, the last time the Rebels appeared in the postseason.

Lesko retired just one batter, as ASU scored six runs in the first, but the loss was hardly his fault. He could have pitched like Sandy Koufax and it wouldn't have mattered, because then the Rebels, who had charged back through the losers' bracket following a 14-12 extra inning loss to New Mexico State on Friday, would have had to do it all over again.

"We didn't lose this game today," Schlossnagle said. "We lost this game on Friday night."

Having been dumped into the losers' bracket on the first day and already short on starting pitching, the Rebels, like so many teams in that position, simply didn't have enough rested arms to battle all the way back.

Again, it may not have mattered. The way the Sun Devils were pitching and catching, the Arizona Diamondbacks would have had trouble beating them twice Sunday.

"I don't care what the (seeding) committee says, that's a top 3 or top 4 seed in the country," Schlossnagle said of a fifth-ranked Arizona State team (53-12) that did not receive one of the eight national seeds.

The Sun Devils turned the championship game into an instructional video. Every time the Rebels appeared to hit one "where they ain't," a Sun Devil seem to materialize from a desert mirage to turn it into a SportsCenter-quality out.

Early in the game, ASU shortstop and co-Pac-10 MVP Dustin Pedroia made a diving stop of Fernando Valenzuela's topspin smash through the middle of the diamond and converted it into the prettiest out you'll ever see.

Until Valenzuela's next at-bat, anyway, when Sun Devils right fielder Travis Buck raced to the wall, timed his leap and robbed the Rebels' MVP of a home run.

"When I was at Tulane, I sat next to Pedroia's parents after a game and told them if the NCAA would allow it, I would give him two scholarships," Schlossnagle said.

"I think he's the Pete Rose of college baseball. I felt like they had 10 of them out there. Anywhere we hit the ball, they popped up and caught it."

Arizona State coach Pat Murphy, whose Sun Devils are bidding for their 19th College World Series berth but their first in three years, agreed.

"I thought we played a pretty good team," he said. "They had close to 50 hits on Saturday (in 22-3 and 16-10 wins against Central Connecticut and New Mexico State) and for us to shut them down the way we did and to play defense the way we did ... is amazing."

Schlossnagle indicated it was simply a case of the Rebels being in against a superior opponent.

Not a fan of moral victories, he said he was willing to make an exception when it comes to Arizona State, who the Rebels have beaten just 13 times in 69 all-time meetings.

"You're talking about Arizona State, the premier program in our sport for 30 or 40 years," he said. "UNLV, we're trying to head in that direction, and we're two years in.

"But if Luca's healthy and if David Seccombe, the guy who began the season as the No. 2 starter but hasn't pitched in two months, doesn't get hurt, we're a completely different team."

He didn't say that team could beat Arizona State, but the one he did put on the field in Tempe beat just about everybody else this season.

In only their second year under Schlossnagle, the Rebels had a season to remember. Among their accomplishments:

Now, of course, the trick will be to sustain the success of this year's team. And it may not be easy, especially if draft-eligible stalwarts such as Valenzuela, outfielder Patrick Dobson, third baseman Brent Johnson and starting pitcher Robbie Van turn pro after the summer's draft.

But Valenzuela, for one, was talking like he would be back.

"This is a huge experience," he said of making it to the regional final. "A lot of us will be back next year and we'll be ready to go. This was a good step for our program as far as reaching where we want to be."

Afterward, Schlossnagle ran down a checklist of where the Rebels must go from here.

"We need to be a perennial regional team that finishes at or near the top of our league every year and then gets a chance to host one of these things (an NCAA regional) and be a No. 1 seed," he said.

"I've had a chance to be part of an Omaha club at Tulane. I was there for eight years and we went to six regionals. The first five we went on the road and lost them all in the championship game or close to it. Then the first year we hosted it, we go (to the College World Series).

"It's no secret who goes."

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