Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Rebel quick hits:

UNLV baseball captures Mountain West title with sweep of UNR

UNLV Baseball Pitchers Excel

L.E. Baskow

UNLV baseball pitchers, from left, Erick Fedde, Kenny Oakley, Bryan Bonnell and John Richy stand at Earl E. Wilson Stadium on Thursday, April 10, 2014.

UNLV Baseball Pitchers Excel

UNLV baseball pitchers Erick Fedde, 20, Kenny Oakley, 25, Bryan Bonnell,11, and John Richy, 45, at the Earl E. Wilson Stadium on Thursday, April 10, 2014. Launch slideshow »

This victory against UNR had more significance for the UNLV baseball team.

The Rebels finished a three-game sweep of their instate rivals today at Earl E. Wilson Stadium with a 4-2 victory, clinching a share of the Mountain West regular season title with New Mexico and the No. 1 seed in next week’s league tournament.

UNLV (33-21, 20-10 Mountain West) and New Mexico, which beat Air Force today, had identical league records, but the Rebels won the tiebreaker for seeding in the tournament because they took five of six games this season from the Lobos.

It was the Rebels’ first league title since 2005, which was the last time they reached an NCAA Regional. That streak is expected to end, too.

UNLV scored all of its runs in the third inning to grab the lead for good. Morgan Stotts and Matt McCallister drove in runs.

Kenny Oakley pitched eight scoreless innings to earn the win, striking out three batters and yielding just three hits. UNR plated two runs in the top of the ninth before Bradyen Torres recorded the final two outs for his seventh save.

The Mountain West tournament begins Wednesday at UNLV. That’s good news for the Rebels, who are 20-3 at home.

Ray Brewer can be reached at 990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21.

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