Rebels’ late collapse lands them No. 3 seed

Monday, May 24, 2004 | 9:16 a.m.

Because the UNLV baseball team couldn't get three outs in the bottom of the ninth inning at New Mexico Saturday, it will have to get 27 against Air Force Wednesday.

All the Rebels had to do to clinch their second consecutive Mountain West Conference regular-season championship and an all-important first-round bye in the MWC tournament that starts Wednesday at Wilson Stadium was protect a 4-1 lead against the Lobos.

UNLV couldn't do it, proving once again there is no such thing as a safe lead in college baseball -- not that anyone in the Rebels' dugout was packing up the equipment with a three-run lead.

Besides not picking up some additional hardware for the trophy case, the loss was a bitter pill to swallow in that UNLV tumbled all the way from first place into third.

San Diego State, which began the weekend in third place, charged past both UNLV and New Mexico by sweeping a three-game series at Utah to finish with a 19-11 conference record (two weather postponed games at Air Force will not be made up). The Rebels and Lobos tied for second at 20-10 but New Mexico earned the No. 2 seed and other first-round tournament bye by winning the teams' regular-season series, 4-2.

Brigham Young (17-12) earned the No. 4 seed and will meet No. 5 and arch rival Utah (11-19) at 11 a.m. Wednesday in the tournament opener. The Rebels and Air Force, which went winless in conference play (0-27), will square off at 3 p.m. with Wednesday's losers meeting at 7 p.m. in an elimination game.

"After what happened (Saturday), we just need to get back on the field and put what happened out of our mind," UNLV coach Buddy Gouldsmith said.

"There's no question you've got to play nine innings. Matt Luca (8 innings, 8 hits, five strikeouts, no walks) pitched a great game and put us in a position exactly where we had to be. We just couldn't get the last three outs."

Because the Rebels couldn't close the deal, it is New Mexico that awaits Wednesday's highest-surviving seed at 11 a.m. Thursday, with San Diego State getting the lower remaining seed at 3 p.m.

The championship game is set for 3 p.m. Saturday, with the winner receiving the Mountain West's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

The reason a first-round bye is so important is that it takes a huge burden off a team's pitching staff. San Diego State or New Mexico could take the title by winning just three games while the Rebels, BYU, Utah or Air Force would have to win a minimum of four. That could become five, if a team battles back through the losers' bracket.

Gouldsmith said he would put the Rebels' three primary starters -- David Seccombe, Jake Vose and Luca -- against anybody's. But now, if the Rebels are to qualify for their second consecutive NCAA regional, they'll have to turn to spot starters Matt Wagner and/or Matt Minor.

A potential dilemma about when to do it was removed by the last two weeks of the regular season, short ones for the starting rotation. A makeup game against Utah two weekends ago and a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series at New Mexico rather than the typical Friday-Saturday-Sunday forced the UNLV starters to throw a day ahead of schedule.

That's why Wagner (2-4, 7.41 ERA) will get the nod against Air Force.

"It's not that we're looking past Air Force," Gouldsmith said. "It's just that this isn't the time of the season where you want starters pitching on short rest ... and we've done it two weeks in a row."