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Utah Wins Second Game of the Day To Eliminate UNLV at 2008 Phillips 66 MWC Baseball Championship
May 22, 2008 FORT WORTH, Texas - Just hours after a 1-0 victory, the Utah Utes (26-27) continued their impressive play en route to a 7-4 victory over the UNLV Rebels (22-37) in Thursday's second game at the 2008 Phillips 66 Mountain West Conference Baseball Championship. The Utes advance to Friday's 3 p.m. game against the loser of tonight's TCU-New Mexico contest. The Rebels were eliminated. The two teams combined for 24 hits and 11 runs in an offense-heavy matchup. With its output, Utah now has the most hits of any team so far in the Mountain West Tournament at 41. The Utes got off to a quick start by plating a man in the first inning. Corey Shimada led off the frame with a walk. After two consecutive outs, Dustin Hennis sent a single through the middle to bring home Shimada. Hennis was later picked off at third by UNLV catcher Michael Brenly to end the inning. UNLV evened the score at one in top of the third when J.J. Sferra started a two-out rally with a double down the right field line. Sferra came home after Utah second baseman Corey Shimada had a ground ball bounce off his elbow and skip away into shallow left field giving Sferra time to get around the base paths. Utah bounced back quickly in the bottom of the inning as the Utes got runners on first and third with one out. Jesse Shriner brought in Shimada with a ground out to third to give Utah back the lead at 2-1. The Utes extended their lead in the bottom of the fourth, as Austin Jones led off the inning with a double. He later scored on an infield single by Michael Beltran. Utah threatened to grow its advantage even further by having runners at the corners with only one out, but could not get any more across. In the fifth, Utah had a chance to blow the game open as it put runners on second and third with no outs. UNLV was able to tighten its defense in escaping the inning without any runs scoring. The Rebels closed the gap in the seventh as they had runners on the corners with only one out. Scott Berke drove in Anthony Morel with a sacrifice bunt to make the game 3-2. In the bottom of the inning, Utah again pulled away as Corey Shimada drew a leadoff walk. After stealing second, Shimada was brought in when Ute left fielder Dustin Hennis hit his fifth home run of the year, putting the lead at 5-2. The Utes weren't done as they had three straight batters reach base following Hennis' home run. Following a walk by starter Thomas Whitsett, UNLV reliever Adam Moser surrendered two hits and Utah finished the inning with a 6-2 advantage. UNLV again rallied with four straight hits to get back in striking distance, as the bases were loaded with just one out in the eighth. Following RBI singles by Anthony Morel and Sferra, the Rebels climbed within two runs at 6-4 entering the bottom of the eighth. The Utes pushed across a run in the bottom half of the inning to make the lead 7-4 to end the scoring for the day. Utah starter Bryn Card (3-1) earned the win, going 6 1/3 innings allowing two runs on eight hits. He struck out three and did not walk a batter.
For UNLV, Whitsett dropped to 2-6. He surrendered six runs on nine hits in 6 2/3 innings, striking out one and walking three.
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