REBELS PUNCH TICKET TO MW TOURNAMENT
The UNLV Hustlin’ Rebels’ baseball team (30-22, 15-14 MW) punched its ticket to Credit Union 1 Mountain West Baseball Tournament for the first time since the 2022 season with a 10-4 win against Air Force (20-24, 12-17) in the second game of the series on Friday night at Earl E. Wilson Stadium. UNLV set the tone early and broke the game open with a six-run outburst in the third inning, highlighted by home runs from Cooper Sheff and Dean Toigo.
HOW IT WENT DOWN: UNLV wasted little time jumping on the scoreboard. After a two-out walk from Cole Koniarsky in the bottom of the first, Mikey Cruz Jr. laced an RBI double down the left field line to bring home the game’s first run. Air Force answered quickly in the second, tying the game on an RBI double. The third inning saw Koniaraky record his second leadoff double, who then scored moments later on an RBI single from Cruz Jr. Sheff followed with a towering two-run homer to left field, giving the Rebels a 4-1 lead and chasing Falcons starter Cranz Smelcer from the game. After Brendan O’Sullivan reached on a double and Chase Gallegos followed with a single, UNLV scored on a throwing error that brought home another run. Then, Toigo delivered the final blow of the inning, sending a two-run blast over the right-field wall to make it 7-1. By the time the dust settled, UNLV had scored six runs on seven hits in the inning. The Falcons responded in the top of the fourth, scoring two runs on a pair of doubles, cutting the lead to 7-3. But just when the Falcons seemed to be gaining momentum, the Rebels tacked on another run in the fifth. Gallegos walked, advanced on a groundout and came home on a JP Hefft RBI double to make it 8-3. The Falcons’ last glimmer of hope came in the seventh. Alex Adams tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Chase Spencer, trimming the UNLV lead to 8-4. In the bottom of the eighth, Cruz Jr. walked and scored on a triple by Dwight Allen II, who then came home on a wild pitch for the Rebels’ 10th run of the night.
QUOTABLE: “Glad that we are going to continue to play next week in the conference tournament, but by no means are we going to celebrate it. We are very happy that we took a 5-10 conference record at the halfway point and turned that around by winning 10 out of our last 14 conference games. Assistant coaches, players, support staff, everyone involved were all in as one and got after it.
-Head Coach Stan Stolte
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
– Toigo is on a 19-game hitting streak and his 18th home runs this season leads the conference.
– Sheff’s home run was his sixth of the season.
– Hefft, Toigo and Cruz Jr. recorded a pair of hits apiece.
– LJ Mercurius was credited with his fourth win of the season after he went six innings where he scattered four hits on three earned runs with four walks and eight strikeouts.
– Evan Vasiloiu posted his second save of the season where he threw three innings and collected a trio of punchouts.
UP NEXT: The Hustlin’ Rebels will close out the regular season and look for the sweep against Air Force on Saturday, May 17 at 12:05 p.m. in what will be Senior Day.