UNLV Beats Northridge to End Series

Gamblers take note:

When in Las Vegas, do as the Las Vegans do. Take your winnings and run. That is exactly what the Nevada Las Vegas baseball team did Sunday.

The Rebels defeated Cal State Northridge, 5-0, at Barnson Field, scoring all of their runs in a fifth-inning outburst that coincided with a downpour of rain.

For Northridge, bad luck reigned thereafter. The showers were brief but still heavy enough to make the umpires call an end to the game after a 45-minute delay.

“So ends the trip from hell,” said Northridge Coach Bill Kernen, whose 18th-ranked Matadors lost two of three games to the Rebels. “We had a bad hotel, bad weather and we played poorly.”

Kernen also thought that Northridge (19-7-1) might have been the victim of bad judgment. Were the score reversed, he speculated, the game would have continued.

Though the rain stopped less than an hour after the game was halted, the umpires did not believe that the surface could be repaired.

Mike Solar, the Matador first baseman, ignited UNLV’s rally by mishandling Dan Soaib’s ground ball. One out later, Demond Thompkins singled, moving Soaib to third and taking second himself on the throw.

Dan Madsen cashed in both runners on a double down the third-base line. Tory Miran then doubled to right on the only hard-hit ball of the inning, scoring Madsen.

Lino Diaz then lofted a fly ball that became a triple when CSUN right-fielder Kyle Washington lost it in the clouds and drizzle.

One out later, Diaz scored when Northridge pitcher John Bushart fielded a chopper up the third-base line and threw the ball past Solar at first. Bushart retired Brian Loucks on a groundout to end the fifth, making the game official.

“I knew if I gave up a couple of runs we were still OK, but we just couldn’t get a break,” said Bushart, whose record fell to 2-1.

The Rebels (19-10) have won 16 of their past 21 and are 17-4 at home.