UNLV baseball could use more hot bats

UNLV left fielder Payton Squier finished the regular season with a .383 batting average that is the highest by a Rebels starter since 2004, when Eric Nielsen hit .402.

Unfortunately for UNLV, Squier was one of only two players, along with third baseman Kyle Isbel (.323), to bat better than .300 this season for the Rebels (24-30, 14-16 Mountain West), who are next-to-last in their league in hitting (.269), runs (63) and home runs (19).

UNLV needs other players to step up at this week’s MW Championship to make a run at the title and the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

“We need someone else to get hot this week,” Rebels coach Stan Stolte said. “I’ve liked the progress we’ve shown the last month. We’re a much better team. Hopefully, we’ll keep playing good, solid baseball and put a string of good games together. We’ve got the pitching.”

The fourth-seeded Rebels will face fifth-seeded Air Force (28-25, 12-18 MW) at 2 p.m. Wednesday in their opener of the double-elimination tournament in Albuquerque, New Mexico. UNLV swept the Falcons in April at Wilson Stadium, where D.J. Myers (6-3, 4.54 ERA) won a 1-0 pitchers’ duel with Air Force ace Griffin Jax (9-2, 1.74).

Myers will start Wednesday’s game and fellow Coronado High School product Kenny Oakley (4-8, 3.98) will start UNLV’s second game of the tournament on Thursday.

Jax, the likely MW Pitcher of the Year, pitched Friday for the Falcons but Stolte said Sunday he wasn’t sure if Jax would start against the Rebels or not. Either way, Air Force is a formidable foe that leads the league in hitting (.322) and is second in homers (40). In fact, Falcons outfielder Tyler Jones, who leads the league in homers (18) and RBIs (62), is one long ball shy of tying UNLV’s total of 19 homers.

This is not the Air Force squad that has gone 4-19 in its last 10 conference tourneys.

“This is probably the best Air Force team they’ve had,” Stolte said. “Hopefully we get hot. It’d be nice to stay out of the losers’ bracket as long as possible.”

TOURNEY TIMES

Top-seeded Fresno State (36-20, 21-9) and second-seeded New Mexico (35-21, 20-10), which won tournament titles in 2011 and 2012, earned first-round byes. Three-time defending tournament champion San Diego State (19-36, 11-19), the No. 6 seed, will face No. 7 San Jose State (17-38, 7-23) in a play-in game at 10 a.m. Wednesday, with the winner to play No. 3 UNR (33-22, 20-10) at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

UNLV, which won three straight tourney titles from 2003-05, went 2-4 this season against Fresno State and 3-3 vs. the Lobos.

The losers of Wednesday’s games will meet at 10 a.m. Thursday. Fresno State will face the lowest winning seed at 2 p.m. Thursday and New Mexico will face the highest winning seed at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Elimination games continue Friday and Saturday, when the championship game will be played at 4 p.m. If a second title game is needed, it will take place at noon Sunday.

Live streaming of the event is available for free at TheMW.com and CampusInsiders.com.

RUNNING REBELS

The UNLV track and field team has qualified nine individuals for 10 events, as well as its 4x100-meter relay team, for the NCAA West Preliminary, which will take place Thursday to Saturday in Lawrence, Kansas.

The top 12 finishers in each event will qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, and the Rebels have solid chances to advance in several events.

“Everybody we have going is capable of doing it. It’s a matter of getting it done that day,” UNLV coach Yvonne Wade said. “In the sprints, hundredths of a second are the difference between going home or getting a ticket to Oregon. It’s all about getting it right at that moment.”

Kaysee Pilgrim is ranked second in the West in the high jump and sixth nationally with a UNLV-record distance of 6 feet, 0.75 inches (1.85 m) at the Mt. SAC Relays.

Ayana Gales is seventh in the West in the long jump after placing second at the MW Outdoor Championships with a leap of 20 feet, 10.75 inches (6.37 m).

Destiny Smith-Barnett is seeded 12th in the 100-meter dash (11.32 seconds) and Drea Austin, a Foothill High School product, also is expected to contend for a trip to nationals in the 100 (11.34) and 200 (23.45).

Wade also expects her relay team — which led at the MW Outdoors before dropping the baton — to advance to Oregon. She’ll choose between Smith-Barnett, Austin, Gales, Asia Cooper and Micayla Coquia to comprise the quartet.

Other athletes representing the Rebels at the University of Kansas’ Rock Chalk Park are Cooper in the 100, Auzsane Crowe-Carter in the 800, Taylor Pegram in the 100-meter hurdles, Cortney Miller in the hammer throw and MyShauna Alexander in the javelin.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354. Follow him on Twitter: @tdewey33