The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

Write for Us
Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues
Write for Us
Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues

Lost Vegas: Baseball swept in Sin City

The U baseball team had a chance to play spoiler over the weekend, but UNLV had too much firepower.

The Rebels (30-26, 23-7 MWC) made a clean sweep of their final regular-season series against Utah, closing the three-game set out with a 13-6 blowout win on Senior Day at Earl Wilson Stadium.

With the sweep, the Utes (18-34, 10-20 MWC) are reeling as they head into this week’s Mountain West Conference tournament, having lost 10 of their last 11 regular-season games.

“We played hard and we played well at times,” U head coach Bill Kinnberg said. “But we didn’t capitalize on things that we could have had.”

The Utes, who have struggled for the last three weeks since their four-game winning streak at the end of April, had an opportunity to spoil the Rebels’ season, as UNLV came into the weekend just one game ahead of BYU for the MWC title.

In each of the first two games of the series, the Utes looked like they might take advantage of that chance.

In the series opener on Thursday, the Utes got off to an early lead and had the Rebels in a 4-4 deadlock as late as the sixth inning. But Utah’s pitchers couldn’t keep the Rebel bats at bay for much longer, and it all unraveled. UNLV left fielder Matt Fry broke the tie with a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning-his second homer of the game-and the Rebels tacked on four more runs over the last two innings to pull away for a 10-4 victory.

“UNLV’s relief pitching got better as the games went along, and ours got worse,” Kinneberg said. “That was the difference between our two teams. We don’t have the depth [in the pitching staff] to get stronger as the game goes along. That’s why they’re the top seed in the conference.”

Friday’s ballgame was even more difficult for Utah to swallow. Leading 6-4 in the sixth inning, the Utes once again let one get away, as the Rebels scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a one-run lead.

While Utah tied it back up at seven apiece, a solo home run by Ryan Bird gave UNLV the lead for good and the Rebels went on to win, 9-7.

That victory, coupled with BYU’s loss to San Diego State, clinched the regular-season conference title for the Rebels.

Though UNLV had nothing to play for in the final game of the series Saturday, the team went out on a strong note anyway, and once again, it came at the expense of a late-game breakdown by the Utes.

In what became a growing trend over the weekend, the Rebels erased a sixth-inning deficit to pull away. The Utes led 3-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth, and then the Rebels-the MWC’s top-hitting team in conference play-put on a show.

The Rebels erupted for 10 runs in the sixth inning alone, and did so by playing small-ball. They opened the inning with five consecutive singles and got their first 11 hitters on base. UNLV had nine hits in the inning-seven singles and a pair of doubles-as they opened up a big lead en route to the 13-6 victory.

Third baseman Mike Cruz led the Rebels offensively, going 2-for-5 with three RBI.

“They have a very good offense,” Kinneberg said. “That’s a very offensive park and the wind was blowing out.”

Utah’s loss came despite a strong performance from starting pitcher Chase Christensen, who yielded just one run over four innings of work before giving way to the Ute bullpen.

“Some of our pitchers did very well this weekend,” Kinneberg said. “But our relief pitching just did not hold up.”

The Utes will host the conference tournament, which begins this Wednesday at Franklin Covey Field. The No. 5 seed Utes will take on the No. 4 New Mexico Lobos (25-30, 15-15 MWC) in the first round at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

“We’re going to be at home, and we don’t feel like we’re outmatched,” Kinneberg said. “We feel that we can do some damage in the tournament.”

[email protected]

Leave a Comment

Comments (0)

The Daily Utah Chronicle welcomes comments from our community. However, the Daily Utah Chronicle reserves the right to accept or deny user comments. A comment may be denied or removed if any of its content meets one or more of the following criteria: obscenity, profanity, racism, sexism, or hateful content; threats or encouragement of violent or illegal behavior; excessively long, off-topic or repetitive content; the use of threatening language or personal attacks against Chronicle members; posts violating copyright or trademark law; and advertisement or promotion of products, services, entities or individuals. Users who habitually post comments that must be removed may be blocked from commenting. In the case of duplicate or near-identical comments by the same user, only the first submission will be accepted. This includes comments posted across multiple articles. You can read more about our comment policy at https://dailyutahchronicle.com/comment-faqs/.
All The Daily Utah Chronicle Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *