UNLV was projected to finish in the middle of the pack this year despite a fourth-place finish last season. Things for the Rebels started off great through the non-conference schedule, but they were another Mountain West team that couldn’t find any consistent footing through the conference schedule.
Pitching proved to be one of the biggest challenges throughout the season. The Rebels frequently found themselves needing their offense to overcome early deficits, and while there were standout individual
performances on the mound, the staff as a whole struggled to provide the consistency necessary to compete over a full conference schedule. Close games often tilted against UNLV, leaving the Rebels unable to turn competitive outings into victories.
Record: UNLV finished with an overall record of 30-25 and a conference record of 11-13. The Rebels were the sixth and final team to make the conference tournament, but lost the opening round to Air Force 17-7.
Highlight: Series wins over San Jose State and GCU. UNLV finished conference play 11-13, as did San Jose State and GCU. All three teams were tied for sixth, which meant a three-way battle for the final spot in the conference tournament. On March 27-29, UNLV took down San Jose State 2-1 in a three-game series. A few weeks later, the Rebels did the same thing to GCU through three games. Both series wins ended up being what UNLV needed for the three-way tiebreaker. While the Rebels were one-and-done in the tournament, the fight to get their was impressive.
Lowlight: Opening conference series loss to Air Force from March 13-14. UNLV was only swept once during conference play, and it was the first MW series of the season against Air Force. Even winning one out of three could’ve changed the Rebels’ outcome throughout the season.
Key stat: UNLV’s pitching and hitting were on total opposing sides. The hitting portion was arguably the best in the conference. As a team, UNLV hit .312/.412/.517 with a conference-leading 79 home runs. The Rebels were also second in walks with 251.
Pitching was just a tad different. UNLV had the worst team ERA in the Mountain West at 7.97 through 465 innings. Yet, the pitching staff led the conference in strikeouts with 525.
Season grade: C
UNLV gets a slight boost over GCU for making the conference tournament, but it was a far too inconsistent season to go above that. The Rebels also lost longtime head coach Stan Stolte to retirement, so next season will include plenty of new changes.
