Coach Tim Chambers laughs during UNLV baseball practice at Earl E. Wilson Baseball Stadium Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015. The UNLV baseball team hosts Nebraska to open the season on Friday.
Friday, Feb. 13, 2015 | 2 a.m.
This year’s UNLV baseball team is the closest thing yet to what coach Tim Chambers had in mind when he left the College of Southern Nevada to take the helm at UNLV in 2011. That’s because the roster is filled with 16 players from across the Las Vegas Valley, many of them guys Chambers has coached or monitored in other capacities for years.
“Justin Jones was my daughter’s first date for God’s sake,” Chambers said of the junior infielder. “I know them all.”
As the Rebels begin their 2015 season tonight at Earl E. Wilson Stadium with a three-game series against Nebraska, the fifth-year manager hopes the local talent he’s been assembling will help in many areas but one in particular: depth.
The headline injury was obviously pitcher Erick Fedde, who was selected in the first round of June’s MLB Draft, but there were problems all over the field. Some of those were created because Chambers didn’t feel like he had adequate replacements in some spots and had to play guys more than he would have liked.
“It killed us,” Chambers said. “I don’t know how we made it with all the injuries.”
Despite that, UNLV won its first regular-season conference championship since 2005 and went 1-2 in the NCAA regionals. The goal, as always, is to build on that, and accomplishing that feat is going to require a lot of locals filling into bigger roles, something those players are confident they can achieve.
“There’s a ton of talent in Vegas,” said senior catcher Erik VanMeetren, a Bishop Gorman High grad. “You don’t have to go to Southern California or Florida or Texas to get the talent.”
VanMeetren is a captain and one of the Rebels’ best players, but Chambers remembers when he hated having the catcher as a youngster because of a bad attitude. Senior pitcher Joey Lauria, a Legacy High grad, was committed to UNLV but when Chambers took over he cut the then-overweight hurler. After two years at CSN, Chambers liked Lauria’s development and brought him back to the program.
“To watch the maturation of these kids is awesome,” Chambers said.
Chambers sees himself as a father figure, consequences included, because he’s found happiness watching his players grow. In the case of some of the local kids that means not only growing as players and people but also growing out of diapers. Seeing that development and sending kids off with degrees seem to be what makes Chambers most happy.
“When they come back and hug your neck,” he said, “it means way more than any win ever.”
But lest anyone think otherwise, the Rebels are trying to win, too. VanMeetren pointed out that he’s been playing alongside guys like Jones and pitcher Kenny Oakley for more than a decade, and “we’ve won everywhere we’ve gone.”
The Mountain West coaches picked UNLV to finish third, tied with UNR and trailing league favorite New Mexico and San Diego State. They also put junior outfielder Joey Armstrong on the preseason all-conference team for the second straight year.
With an eye towards the postseason, Chambers once again put together a nonconference schedule that will help the Rebels’ RPI numbers. Nebraska is a perennial power, same goes for Arizona State and a two-game series at No. 8 Oklahoma State awaits in early March.
Road trips will test the Rebels but it’s at home that they want to put on a show. Las Vegas has a lot of baseball talent, including older (the Washington Nationals’ Bryce Harper) and younger (the Mountain Ridge Little League team) generations who will throw out tonight’s first pitch, and part of putting together a team built on local talent is getting other locals to show up and cheer for them.
“It means a lot for this town,” Lauria said. “I’ve had a lot of people asking me about tickets.”
A couple of underclassmen — sophomore outfielder Cody Howard and freshman outfielder Hunter Bross — are week-to-week after suffering injuries Tuesday, but unlike last year Chambers isn’t worried about that yet. It’s taken time to put together a roster that can withstand some setbacks and still be just as strong, and that’s what he believes he has.
“If we lose it’s on me,” Chambers said. “These guys are not happy with making it to a regional and neither am I. And I’m also not a big fan of once in awhile. I want to go every year and I want to get to Omaha.”
Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.
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