Rebels sent packing in two games

Monday, June 7, 2004 | 9:31 a.m.

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- In auto racing, when somebody asks "How fast do you want to go?" the answer almost always is "How much money do you want to spend?"

In college baseball, if you substitute "far" for "fast," it's pretty much the same deal.

UNLV's part of the bracket at the NCAA Palo Alto regional went as projected this weekend, as it was two and out for the Rebels. UNLV played almost as well as could be expected in a 10-4 loss to Stanford, the nation's top-ranked team, on Friday night before being eliminated by scrappy St. John's, the regional's No. 3 seed, 9-6 on Saturday morning.

It was the second consecutive year the Rebels, who finished 37-24, made it into the regionals. They advanced to the finals at Tempe, Ariz., last year, losing in the championship game at Arizona State.

This year, there wasn't enough pitching or timely hitting to carry the Rebels that far.

But although he would never sell his improving program short, there simply is too big of a financial gap between the haves and have-nots of the college baseball world to expect UNLV to take the next step up, into the realm of Stanford and Texas and LSU, et al.

The Rebels' operating budget this season was approximately $150,000. When UNLV coach Buddy Gouldsmith was asked how that compares to a blueblood program such as Stanford, he had to stifle a laugh.

"Those guys just write a check," he said of the Cardinal's endowments and vast resources.

The Rebels, on the other hand, continue to pinch pennies, although Gouldsmith said first-year UNLV athletic director Mike Hamrick seems committed to fattening the baseball budget.

Until then, jumping up to a No. 1 seed isn't a realistic goal. But UNLV was a No. 2 at Tempe last year, and probably not that far from being in the same spot this year, its 0-11 record against top 100 teams notwithstanding.

"The difference for us is winning a close game against (Cal State) Fullerton that we lost in the 11th inning at the start of the season, winning a game we gave away to (Cal) Irvine at their place, and beating Arizona when we've got them down 9-3 in the sixth at home," Gouldsmith said.

"If we win those three games and then beat Michigan State and Manhattan at home on Friday night, that's five more wins. Then we're sitting at 41, 42 wins and we're an easy No. 2 or No. 3 seed.

"We're just games away. And they're all games that we were in."

That the Rebels have made it to the NCAAs in back-to-back seasons is a good indication that UNLV is on the way up. It's the rest of the Mountain West Conference, save perhaps San Diego State and Texas Christian, an NCAA tournament team that will join the MWC in 2006, that might be the bigger concern, Gouldsmith said.

"I think RPI-wise, the Mountain West is 21st out of 25 leagues right now," he said. "I'd like to see us have a much stronger baseball league and we will get a little stronger with the addition of TCU in 2006. But there's got to be a commitment by every team throughout the league, not just UNLV or San Diego State or TCU."

Gouldsmith said other conferences have strengthened themselves from the bottom up.

"I was in Conference USA for nearly five years (as an assistant at Tulane)," he said. "Really, the clubs that have to elevate your league are the clubs at the bottom, because the ones at the top are going to continue to do business the way they do business. It's the clubs at the bottom that have to go out and play better competition, and in the end, they have to win those games."

The second part of that equation is where the Rebels seem to be stuck. They'll try again next year, with games against Texas, Cal State Fullerton and Arizona, all Super Regional teams, and either Cal or Arizona State on the schedule. In 2006, they'll play Texas and Fullerton again, and will add LSU.

And though the nucleus of this year's team will be gone due to graduation or the major league draft, UNLV should still have plenty of talent to give those power-laden teams a run for their money. The Rebels' fall recruiting class was ranked No. 8 in the nation by Baseball America magazine.

"Our league sets up well for us in terms of being able to compete for a championship," Gouldsmith said. "But our goal is to make it to Omaha (site of the College World Series) and our (immediate) goal is to make it out of a regional.

"We played in the championhip game last year against Arizona State and obviously, we fell short this year. We're just hoping to get back here next year and give it another run."

The graduating seniors and the junior stalwarts, such as MWC player of the year Eric Nielsen, who is expected to go fairly high in today's major league draft, will have to follow next year's team through the newspapers or on the Internet. But Gouldsmith said their contributions during the program's formative years should not be overlooked.

"All the guys that played out there (this weekend), they're the ones that have formed the foundation for everybody who will come after them, for creating high expectations and ultimately, for achieving long-term success," Gouldsmith said.