UNLV’s rally falls short in baseball home opener

After coming from behind to beat No. 23 Texas in extra innings in its Feb. 19 season opener, UNLV was poised to pull off another dramatic comeback victory over a Big 12 conference team in its home opener against West Virginia on Friday night at Wilson Stadium.

The Rebels tied the game at 6 in the eighth inning after erasing an early five-run deficit and had the bases loaded and a 3-and-0 count on Nick Rodriguez.

But Rodriguez grounded into an inning-ending fielder's choice on a close play at second on a 3-and-2 pitch, and the Mountaineers scored three in the ninth to escape with a 9-6 victory before an announced crowd of 1,666.

"We spotted them six runs. That's tough to overcome," UNLV coach Stan Stolte said. "They came out and punched us right in the mouth, and we recovered, but we just didn't have enough in the end."

West Virginia center fielder KC Huth drew a leadoff walk from UNLV reliever Blaze Bohall to start the ninth, took second on an errant pickoff throw, went to third on a wild pitch and scored the tiebreaking run on a line single by Jimmy Galusky, the No. 9 hitter.

Darius Hill then hit a two-run homer to right to make the score 9-6 and cap a three-hit, four-RBI night.

Catcher Andrew Yazdanbakhsh delivered another clutch hit for UNLV (1-3) after belting the decisive solo homer in the Rebels' 4-3, 12-inning win over the Longhorns. Trailing 6-4 with two outs and two on in the eighth, Yazdanbakhsh drilled an RBI double down the left-field line, and Cooper Esmay scored the tying run on the play on an error by left fielder Kyle Gray.

"Everyone should want that situation in their hands," Yazdanbakhsh said. "That's the kind of stuff you dream about."

A.J. VanMeetren was hit by a pitch and Cody Howard walked to load the bases for Rodriguez.

"We battled back the best we could," Yazdanbakhsh said. "It just didn't work out."

It took three pitches for West Virginia (3-1) to take the shine off UNLV's 50th home opener.

Mountaineers leadoff hitter Kyle Davis launched Rebels starter D.J. Myers' third offering over the left-field wall for a 1-0 lead. Hill followed with a single, and Cole Austin then hit a two-run shot to left-center to put West Virginia ahead 3-0.

The Mountaineers scored three in the second to make it 6-1. Hill hammered a two-run, two-out triple to deep center and scored when Justin Jones couldn't handle Austin's hot shot to second.

"They're good hitters, and (Myers) left some balls up, and they made us pay," Stolte said.

Myers allowed six runs, five earned, on six hits in six innings, with a walk and a career-high seven strikeouts. The 6-foot-5-inch, 250-pound right-hander retired the final 10 batters he faced, and Cody Roper followed with two scoreless innings of relief.

UNLV rallied for three in the fifth on back-to-back RBI doubles by Jones and Kyle Isbel and a run-scoring single by Payton Squier, who had a career-high four hits. Isbel had three.

Howard reached on a bunt single to start the seventh and went to second on a bunt by Jones before getting picked off by West Virginia starter Chad Donato, who scattered 10 hits in 7 2/3 innings and had 10 strikeouts and no walks.

Squier was essentially picked off first base in the first inning, but stayed alive long enough in a rundown to allow Isbel to score the Rebels' first run.

UNLV also made three errors in its third straight loss.

"Even our base running, that kills us. We had two guys picked off. That gets their pitcher off the hook. We handed him a 6-1 lead. That helped him, and that guy's pretty good," Stolte said. "For us to battle from 6-1 down against him, I do tip my hat to them. But that's three outs we gave them. That can't happen."

NOTE — Sophomore transfer Dean Kremer, who was lights out in 5 2/3 scoreless innings of relief in UNLV's win over Texas, will start for the Rebels in today's 2:05 p.m. game against West Virginia (3-1).

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