On Friday, in a rainy town of not 55,000 souls along the Willamette River in central western Oregon, UC Irvine returns to the college baseball postseason when it meets UNLV in a regional game at Oregon State.
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A depressing era is ending. It spanned eight years, years of mostly mediocre and sometimes really bad baseball. Tim Chambers finally has put an end to it.
The Rebels open play against Fresno State at 7 p.m. Thursday at Wilson Stadium as the No. 1 seed in the Mountain West Tournament, a co-conference champion whose roster includes 15 players from the Las Vegas valley.
UNLV is tied for second in the Mountain West, four games back of New Mexico in the loss column, and what felt like a certainty a few weeks ago when it came to NCAA at-large chances for the Rebels isn’t all that assured now. Which in no way has their head coach worried.
When I bumped into Tim Chambers Saturday morning on the UNLV campus, the wind had not yet started to blow. The Rebels baseball coach was driving a golf cart, showing supporters around. He appeared happy, happy and hairy.
UNLV’s next baseball game is tonight, against North Dakota. The last time the North Dakota team played a home game was May 18, 2013, because it’s too cold to play baseball in Grand Forks at this time of year.
The conversation between the head coach (Tim Chambers) and a Sacramento (Calif.) City College transfer (Pat Armstrong) went something like this:
Tennessee. Nebraska. Arkansas. Clemson. West Virginia. Arizona State twice. Home and away. If I had to guess, UNLV baseball coach Tim Chambers isn’t all that worried about becoming bowl eligible.