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Monday, Feburary 03, 1997

Bruins sweep Rebels

By Chris McManes
Review-Journal

      UCLA's Troy Glaus was the 37th overall pick of the 1994 major league draft. Eric Valent was a 26th round selection in 1995. UNLV baseball coach Rod Soesbe probably wishes they were playing professionally right now.
      Valent was 4-for-5 with a home run and five RBIs Sunday at Earl E. Wilson Stadium, and Glaus went 2-for-4 and scored twice to lead UCLA to a 10-3 victory over the Rebels. The No. 2 Bruins improved to 6-0 with their three- game sweep of UNLV (0-3), denying Soesbe his first Division I coaching win.
      Glaus, a 6-foot-5 junior shortstop and third baseman who bats third, was 5-for-11 in the series against the Rebels with two RBIs and seven runs scored. Valent, a sophomore center fielder who hits behind Glaus, was 8-for-14 with two home runs and 10 RBIs. His three-run homer in the sixth inning Sunday put the Bruins on top for good, 4-3.
      "We couldn't get (Valent) out for three days," Soesbe said. "He's an awful good player. He and Glaus are both big-time players."
      Valent, who hit .289 with 12 HRs and 55 RBIs last season, leads UCLA with a .536 batting average and 17 RBIs.
      "He's been en fuego (on fire)," said UCLA coach Gary Adams. "He's just hard to get out. I don't how I'd get him out right now. He's hitting everything."
      Glaus is hitting .522 and leads the team in runs with 14. Last year he batted .352 with 16 HRs and 52 RBIs. He started at third base for the bronze medal-winning U.S. Olympic baseball team in Atlanta and is expected to be a top-5 pick in the upcoming draft.
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      "He's a good defensive player and a really valuable guy to have on the team," Adams. "Knowing that Eric's behind him makes him feel like he doesn't have to do everything."
      Adams said he knows this will be Glaus' last year with the Bruins.
      "There's no way I'm going to keep him here," he said. "I don't have that much money, either under the table or over the table."
      Valent's homer gave the Bruins a 4-1 lead. The Rebels trimmed it to 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth on a one-out, two-run double by Henry Jones. But Peter Zamora, who pitched four innings in relief of winner Dan Keller (1-0), kept Jones from scoring by retiring the next two hitters. The Bruins salted the victory with four runs in the seventh.
      Rebel Mike Zipser pitched the first 5 2/3 innings and took the loss. Before exiting, he gave up Valent's homer to right center.
      "He came with a changeup and it just stayed up about belt-high," Valent said. "I just told myself to stay back because I knew he was going to come with something soft."
      UNLV, which was outscored 29-12 this weekend by UCLA, starts a three-game series Friday against Washington at Wilson Stadium.
      "I'm disappointed in the three losses, but we're sure not giving up on these guys," Soesbe said. "... It's a tough situation, but I think we grew up from it a little bit because we played better each day."
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