Friday, May 23, 2003 | 10:30 a.m.
ALBUQUERQUE -- The UNLV baseball team won the American way on Thursday -- through instant gratification. And today it pursues history.
A win today against second-seeded San Diego State in the third game for both teams here at the Mountain West Conference tournament would make this Rebels team the most successful in terms of wins and losses than all but one team in the past 36 years.
The 1978 Rebels won 44 games, according to this season's UNLV media guide, and a win today would match that total. The Rebels stood at 43-15 after Thursday. After opening the tournament in methodical but dominant fashion against Air Force, the Rebels got right to the point Thursday afternoon in laying waste to tournament host New Mexico 12-5 on a sun-splashed field.
The Rebels collected 18 hits and put 29 men on base, including a six-run first inning in which New Mexico starter Kris Gross was pulled after retiring only one batter.
Coach Jim Schlossnagle has seen his team spray 30 hits around the ballpark in two days while scoring 22 runs, and he's hoping it continues through two more games. The Rebels need a win in today's 10 a.m. matchup with San Diego State and a win Saturday against the Aztecs, Brigham Young or Utah to secure the tournament championship and a trip to the NCAA tournament.
UNLV hasn't played in the NCAA tournament since 1996.
A loss to the Aztecs would mean more games in the double-elimination format.
Schlossnagle said today's game would be the most important of the tournament because a win would assure the Rebels of a shorter road to the title. The loser of the morning game will face elimination in a 7 p.m. game today, while the winner rests knowing it will play no more than two games on Saturday.
Schlossnagle said he would send junior Jake Vose to the mound against Tony Gwynn's team. Schlossnagle called Vose "a competitive, little, pigeon-toed lefty," and said he might be coming off his best outing of the season last week against Utah.
Schlossnagle didn't say Vose has a little Yogi Berra in him, too.
"It has been, but this year it hasn't been," Vose said when asked about his curveball being his best pitch. "I don't know what is wrong with it. It just hasn't been the way it has been."
If Vose should become the first Rebels pitcher to truly struggle at this event, Schlossnagle said he wouldn't hesitate to use Giovanni Pupo, a senior lefty, who has started games this season.
Pitching might be the sideshow if the Rebels' lineup remains hot. Five different batters produced a total of six extra-base hits against the Lobos, including Pat Dobson's mammoth first-inning home run to center field, setting the tone.
"We haven't really swung the bat as well as I thought we were capable of throughout the entire season," Schlossnagle said. "I thought we were a club that should be hitting in the .320s ... I always hope we're playing our best baseball at the end of the season. Maybe that's what we're doing."
Dobson so far has made the most of his tournament experience, going 4-for-7 with a home run, two doubles and six RBI in two games.
The junior from Santa Barbara, Calif., said the Rebels came to the tournament expecting to win and expecting to prove a point while doing so.
"We won the league (regular season title), but it seems like we've had a lot of close games with each one of these teams," Dobson said. "We've never had a chance to just pound some teams, and this is an opportunity."
San Diego State was the only other undefeated team remaining going into this morning's game. Either Utah or BYU will be eliminated in a game scheduled to begin at 2 p.m this afternoon.
The winner of that game will play the loser of the UNLV game at 6 tonight.
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