May 14, 2000
San Diego - The San Diego State baseball team finished its regular season with an 8-7 loss to UNLV in a game played at Tony Gwynn Stadium Sunday afternoon.
The Aztecs (30-28, 17-12 MWC) now head to next week's Mountain West Conference Tournament in Las Vegas knowing they will have to face a UNLV team (24-31, 14-16 MWC) that defeated them in five of the six games between the teams this season.
Fredhsman right-hander Rory Shortell had another shaky outing allowing five earned runs in 1.2 innings of work as he took his sixth loss of the year. UNLV's Giovanni Pupo (3-7), who settled down after struggling in the first inning, was the winner with Andy McCulloch picking up his eighth save of the year after pitching a perfect ninth inning.
The Rebels came out swinging and got to Shortell for three runs in the first inning. However, SDSU answered back in the bottom of the inning on a three-run blast by sophomore designated hitter Jacob Minter. UNLV came back with two more in the second to take the lead for good.
Trailing 8-4 in the seventh, San Diego State rallied for three runs on RBI singles by Matt Ricardy and Edgar Gonzalez, but that was as close as they would get.
The SDSU-UNLV matchup at the conference tournament is set for 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 17, at Earl Wilson Field on the UNLV campus. That game can be heard live on the internet through this web site.
UNLV 8, San Diego State 7UNLV 320 102 000 - 8 17 5SDSU 300 100 300 - 7 10 4Pupo, Fairbanks (7), McCulloch (9) and BettsShortell, Mendoza (2), Skinner (3), Ring (6), Dunwell (7), Garber (9) and RogersW - Pupo (3-7)L - Shortell (5-6)SV - McCulloch (8)HR - SDSU: Minter (3)Time - 2:58Att - 397