Bohall, Skelly pitch Rebels to series victory

Whether it was Blaze Bohall or reliever Dan Skelly, UNLV’s pitchers were presented by the home plate umpire with a Greg Maddux-like strike zone.

And they took advantage, hitting the outside corner — maybe even beyond the outside corner — to finally lock down Northwestern’s batters.

The Bohall-Skelly combination came through with clutch pitching, and the Rebels batters did enough to beat the Wildcats 7-2 on Sunday at Wilson Stadium.

That gave the Rebels (12-11, 2-7 Mountain West) a 3-1 nonconference series victory, badly needed for a baseball team looking to put something together. UNLV will know for sure where it stands when San Diego State (19-5, 7-2) visits for a three-game series beginning Friday.

A good showing against the Aztecs, and there could be renewed hope for the Rebels’ season. Otherwise, they will need to make an unlikely run and win the conference tournament in late May to make a regional for the second year in a row.

“It’s not going to be like New Mexico a couple of years ago,” UNLV coach Tim Chambers said. “Nobody’s going to go 25-5 (in league play). Ten, 12 losses is going to win the league, so we’ll just think about Friday and we’ll go from there.”

UNLV had every chance to sweep Northwestern (5-16), but lost a late-inning 9-6 lead Saturday. That made winning Sunday even more crucial. This was the Rebels’ first series victory since sweeping Pacific on Feb. 20 to 23.

“We had struggled a little bit,” Bohall said. “Bouncing back and winning a whole series is huge for us, especially against a team like Northwestern that can really hit the ball.”

Northwestern had spent the weekend beating up UNLV pitching, scoring 29 runs and collecting 53 hits through the first three games. Pitching had been the Rebels’ strength, when them posting a 3.51 ERA before this series.

Bohall (3-0) quieted the Wildcats in yet another strong start, scattering eight hits over seven innings and allowing two runs. The right-hander, who also struck out five batters, typically has been a mid-week starter, but may soon find a spot in the weekend rotation.

“Nobody’s hit him this year,” Chambers said.

Skelly, also a righty, recorded his first save by setting down all six Northwestern batters he faced, including three on strikes.

Chambers credited catcher Erik VanMeetren for helping Bohall and Skelly take advantage of the wide strike zone offered by home plate umpire Randy Upton.

That same zone was available to Northwestern right-hander Joe Schindler (1-2) as well, and he made the most of it early, shutting out the Rebels through the first three innings. But then UNLV began to get to Schindler in the fourth when Dylan Ellis tripled in a run and Joey Swanner singled in one to give the Rebels the lead for good at 2-1.

UNLV added a run in the fifth. Then after the Wildcats cut the lead to 3-2 in the top of the seventh, the Rebels came through with two more in the bottom half on a run-scoring triple by Payton Squier and a sacrifice fly by Morgan Stotts.

That gave Schindler five runs in seven innings.

UNLV’s 10-hit performance also capped a series in which the Rebels knocked out 55 hits and 39 runs after struggling at the plate for most of the season. They were batting .254 entering the season.

“Our team’s been fighting,” said Ellis, who added a solo home run to his triple. “Getting these three wins out of four is huge for us right now.”

Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65.