Tuesday, April 9, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Regardless of how poorly Brian Anthony felt he was hitting before Monday's game with Loyola Marymount, the UNLV designated hitter was doing just fine after.
Anthony guided UNLV to a 12-7 non-conference victory with a sec ond-inning grand slam. He went 3 for 5 and finished with a career-high-tying six RBIs.
The Rebels (31-11), ranked 21st nationally in USA Today's college baseball poll, allowed the Lions (12-27) to score two runs in the top of the first inning before scoring all of theirs in the first five.
Formerly the Rebels' starting first baseman, Anthony has been the team's regular designated hitter of late, and is having trouble adjusting.
"I've been struggling a lot at the plate," Anthony said. "I felt I hit the ball all right tonight. It's good that the team has still been winning when someone's not clicking."
According to Rebel coach Fred Dallimore, Anthony is swinging the bat fine, but since he's not in the field, he over-analyzes each plate appearance.
"When you're used to playing all the time," Dallimore said, "it can be difficult sitting in the dugout worrying about at-bat to at-bat to at-bat. You live with each at-bat until you get another at-bat. When you're playing on defense, you get to think about that every inning."
Anthony's bat helped bail out starter Mike Bauder (6-3), who recorded the victory. The Western High grad, fresh off a bout with the flu, struggled to find his control most of the game. He allowed all of Loyola's runs on eight hits and four walks in six innings, while striking out five.
Trailing 2-1, the Rebels scored six unearned runs in the second inning, punctuated by Anthony's grand slam.
Kevin Eberwein singled to start the inning, but was forced out at second base on Scott Vincent's grounder to third. Sean Campbell then reached when Lions shortstop Chad Ohira let the ball bounce off his knee. Wilkes followed with a walk to load the bases.
Chris Adolph flied out to deep right-center field to score Vincent before Paul Tanner singled to reload the bases, setting the stage for Anthony's strange slam.
Anthony roped Hueth's pitch 365 feet to right where the ball was seemingly lost in the outfield bushes. After a few a minutes of fruitlessly searching the shrubbery, first-base umpire Joe Burleson signaled home run to give Anthony his second career grand slam and ninth home run of the season.
"That ball was smoked," Dallimore said.
UNLV added another run in the third inning and three more in the fourth when Vincent cranked his 11th homer of the year, a three-run shot to make it 11-3.
UNLV finishes its two-game set with Loyola today at 3:05 p.m. Bill Scheffels (1-0, 9.93 ERA) will start for the Rebels, who resume Big West Conference play Friday-Sunday at UC Santa Barbara.
"We don't want to go to Santa Barbara on a flat tire," Dallimore said. "We can't lose (today's) game. Santa Barbara is really important to us."
Around the horn
* CLIMBING THE RANKS: After sweeping its three-game series against Long Beach over the weekend, UNLV moved up four spots to No. 21 in the USA Today college baseball poll released Monday. The Rebels are holding at No. 25 in the Baseball America poll.
* HANKINS RANKS, TOO: UNLV's Ryan Hankins ranks seventh among all collegiate third basemen in fan balloting for the Smith Award Super Team. The player who receives the most votes at each position makes the squad. The Smith Award, which goes to the overall top vote-getter, honors the college baseball player of the year.
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