The Devils Went Down In Vegas

Author: Matt Raftery

It was a windy and even a little chilly night last night at Earl E. Wilson Stadium when the Rebels (19-15 at the time) took on #9 Arizona State (27-4 at the time). On paper, this game should’ve been won pretty convincingly by Arizona State and if you had predicted that as a fan, you were right, until the 9th inning happened.

Going into the 9th, the Rebels were down 9-4 and hope was all but gone for a Rebel comeback it seemed like. To score 5 runs in an inning was a pretty tall task to fill. It’s especially hard to fill when a lot of the fans in attendance had left the game a few innings earlier thinking that the game was pretty much over. Those fans missed quite the show in the 9th inning. The UNLV offense flipped a switch and came roaring to life in the bottom of the 9th inning. The first four batters due up were Bryson Stott, Dillion Johnson, Max Smith, and Edarian Williams. All four batters made it on base safely along with ASU going through 3 relief pitchers during those four batters. During the Edarian Williams’s at-bat, Romero who was the relief pitcher in at the time, was called for a balk which allowed the first run of the inning to come home. The next three batters up for the Rebels were Austin Pfeifer, Chase Hanson, and Grant Robinson. All three batters made their way on base and brought in 3 straight RBIs to bring the game to within one run. The ninth run for UNLV came off of a wild pitch from Romero during James Gamble’s at-bat which tied the game at 9. This set up an ideal situation for Stott to come back up to the plate and win the games for the Rebels with the swing of his bat or should I say non-swing of his bat. Stott was faced with a full count and there was only one out in the inning. Stott went through his normal at-bat routine while Romero looked down the pitcher’s mound for the right pitch to throw. Romero winds up and releases the ball towards home plate. The call by the umpire, ball four. Stott was walked and the tenth and winning run for the Rebels was brought home to win the game. This was a finish truly for the ages and will probably be one of the more memorable ones in the Rebels’ season.

With the win against Arizona State, the Rebels now have two wins over ranked opponents this year which has not happened since 2015. UNLV is also now a perfect 6-0 when they score 10 or more runs in a game along with being 16-3 when scoring at least 6 or more runs. The win now moves the Rebels to 20 wins and 15 losses on the year and have now won 3 straight games going into the weekend series against San Jose State at Earl E, Wilson Stadium. First pitch is set for 6:05pm for Friday and Saturday night’s game and 1:05pm for Sunday’s game.