Columnist Ron Kantowski: MWC slate builds confidence for Rebels

Monday, April 25, 2005 | 9:37 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

It had been a few weeks since I last looked in on the UNLV baseball team, which has taken its usual spot among the teams to beat in the upcoming Mountain West Conference baseball tournament. Provided, of course, there is a plural when it comes to teams to beat.

That would seem to indicate the Rebels are getting better, which is probably the case, or that the MWC is to college baseball what the old Three-I League used to be to big league baseball, which is probably the bigger case.

The Rebels began the second half of the conference campaign at Wilson Stadium this weekend by sweeping New Mexico 11-8, 20-11 and, finally, 16-15 in a 4-hour, 20-minute affair Sunday that endured for 10 innings and finished with the Lobos' second baseman throwing batting practice fastballs to the Rebels' hitters because New Mexico was out of pitchers, or at least guys who were listed as such in the program.

Remember all those classic pitching duels between Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale, or Juan Marichal and Tom Seaver? Well, this wasn't anything like it.

The sweep placed UNLV in a tie for first place in the six-team MWC, which is good, but improved its season record only to 20-22, which is not so good, except in the Mountain West, where only BYU has a winning record.

When I asked Rebels coach Buddy Gouldsmith what kind of team the Rebels had become since the last time I saw them when, quite frankly, they didn't look like much of one, he didn't hesitate.

"This is a team that right now is playing with confidence," he said, which I'm sure is true, given the Rebels' solid 14-4 record in conference play.

But the last time I checked, the Bad News Bears had pulled ahead of Tony Gwynn and San Diego State into third place, and this was after the NCAA ruled against a fifth year of eligibiity for Kelly Leak.

Of its five MWC series, the only one the Rebels haven't won was here against first-place BYU, when they lost two of three games. This weekend, they swept New Mexico without even using Matt Luca, their best pitcher, whom Gouldsmith sat on purpose with the idea of saving some innings for the postseason.

It sort of reminds me of an old "Seinfeld" episode, where Kramer was whipping everybody in his karate class, which sounded impressive, until Jerry and George discovered that none of his victims was older than 12.

Until the Rebels started beating up on the kids in their neighborhood, they were just 6-18 against the bullies from across town. But in UNLV's defense, these were some legitimate college baseball bullies that Gouldsmith scheduled or inherited from predecessor Jim Schlossnagle's idea of a schedule.

The Rebels have played three members of the Top 10, including then-No. 1 Texas and then-No. 5 Cal State Fullerton, and all together have challenged five teams that were nationally ranked at one time this season. They are 2-6 against the big boys, including a victory against Fullerton, the reigning NCAA champions. There were also some tough losses, such as two one-run defeats at Texas.

Although those don't do much for a team's winning percentage or batting average -- "I think we hit .265 in our nonconference games and about .365 since," Gouldsmith said -- you can expect the Rebels to continue playing marquee opponents.

Gouldsmith said the goal is Omaha (site of the College World Series), not Salt Lake City (site of this year's MWC tournament). So he is willing to trade a few victories over the Little Sisters of the Poor for a crack at Mother Superior.

But he also thought the Rebels might have done better than 6-18 against the teams with the winning habits.

"I thought if we could have come out of that .500, we'd be 10 or 12 games over .500 by now," he said. "But those are the guys you have to beat if you want to go to Omaha."

One thing is certain: Somebody from the Mountain West, whether deserved or not, is going to get another opportunity to play somebody with a pedigree at some regional site where the local community actually cares about college baseball. (Sunday's UNM-UNLV attendance: 335.)

And despite the ups-and-downs and unevenness of this season, there's still nothing preventing UNLV from becoming that team.