Some fond memories and a big boost for Rebel baseball

Hey Rebel Fans,

Thanks for all of the support last weekend in our final series at home. It was pretty weird knowing that it was my last weekend playing at a place that has been my home for the last four years.

On the flip side, it was kind of cool because our Senior Day was on Mother’s Day. It was awesome to be able to spend that with my mom on our field. I had four great years at UNLV and definitely made some memories. I appreciate my time as a Rebel and all the chances I’ve had to better myself as a baseball player.

As for the games last weekend … Fresno State just came out swinging and they hit the ball pretty well. I think the difference in the series is that they had timely hits and we didn’t. They also followed up the inning where they scored runs with zeros and we struggled to do that.

We were so hot coming off of the San Diego State series and the weekend before that and we had all the confidence in the world coming into our series with the Bulldogs. It just seemed like the entire weekend we were playing from behind and things didn’t go our way. We weren’t able to bounce back from the early deficits like we have done most of the year.

Currently we sit in sixth place in the Mountain West and we have some work to do in order to get out of the play-in game for the tournament. The stage is set and our goal is to go up to San Jose State and win all three games. We have no control of what Air Force does or does not do. All we can worry about is what we can control. We need to go out and win three games and I believe we can do that.

In case you missed it, earlier this week there was a pretty major announcement pertaining to UNLV baseball. They are in the process of building the Anthony and Lyndy Marnell III UNLV Baseball Clubhouse. We kind of figured something was coming last week when our batting cages were taken down and our thoughts were confirmed on Monday.

I wasn’t able to attend the press conference, but I heard it was a neat deal. The whole setup looks awesome. It is going to be really cool for those guys to have and it will be a great place for me to come back to. The plans look amazing. It’s going to have indoor cages, a weight room and bunch of baseball specific stuff. They are setting it up to be like a big league clubhouse and that is going to help the program grow.

We have to send a huge thank you out to the Marnell family for getting it done. They love the game of baseball, they love Las Vegas and they love UNLV. It’s an extremely generous gift and I know our whole program is super thankful for it. We can’t wait to see it when it’s done.

That’s all for this week. Look forward to talking to you all next week as we get ready for the Mountain West Tournament.

-Erik VanMeetren