The Rebels Take The Series Over The Spartans

Author: Matt Raferty

With the weekend series on the line in this 3rd and final game of the series after splitting the first 2 games, the Rebels struggled early on to find their rhythm offensively and fell behind early.

The Spartans were able to get 2 runs across in the 2nd inning. The first of those 2 runs came off of a wild pitch from Chase Maddux that found its way into the dirt and bouncing to the backstop and the other run of the inning came off of an RBI double. The Spartans would continue to add to the early offense in the 3rd inning with an RBI single from Blake Berry. The Rebels would head to the bottom of the 3rd inning down 3 runs and needing to jumpstart the offense and keep the ballgame within reach. UNLV would answer in exciting fashion in the bottom of the 3rd with a Bryson Stott solo home run to bring the Rebels within 2 runs of SJSU. Dillon Johnson was walked after the Stott homer to set up Max Smith to come up to the plate and crush a ball out of Earl E Wilson Stadium and tie the game up at 3 a piece. The two home runs were Stott’s 7th of the year and Smith’s 9th of the year respectively. San Jose State would capitalize off a crucial mistake from Max Smith fielding a fly ball to right field in the 4th inning that would allow another run across for the Spartans to make the game 4-3. The Rebels would not be the only team to commit errors in the inning however. SJSU would get 2 quick outs in the bottom of the 4th but then committed 3 straight errors including a ground ball that was overthrown to first base that allowed another run across the plate for UNLV to tie the game back up at 4. The offense would pick back up in the bottom of the 6th inning when Bryson Stott hit an RBI double to drive in James Gamble and give the Rebels their first lead of the game at 5-4. The Rebel offense would continue to produce going into the bottom of the 7th off of the bat of James Gamble who drives in another run with an RBI single to extend the UNLV lead to 6-4. The offense would continue to produce in the bottom of the 7th when Dillon Johnson came to bat for the Rebels and hit a double that drove 2 more runs in to grow the lead to 8-4 heading into the 8th inning. UNLV would tack on another insurance run in the bottom of the 8th off a sacrifice pop fly to right field to make the Rebels lead 9-4. The final score would end up being 9-4 in favor of the Rebels.

The win Sunday gave UNLV its 5th win in 6 games and they also clinched the home stand guaranteeing themselves at least 3 wins during this five game home stand that concludes Tuesday against Grand Canyon University.