Champions of MWC Regular Season

PROVO -- "Champions of the Mountain West," is a title BYU's baseball team clinched for the regular season Friday night with an 11-1 victory over UNLV.

Before a record capacity-exceeding crowd of 3,120 fans at Larry H. Miller Field who stayed to see the post-game fireworks celebration, the Cougars provided some fireworks of their own during the game. Nate Fernley threw 116 pitches through eight innings to record his 14th victory against two losses.

Fernley remains the NCAA's winningest pitcher as he scattered eight hits, struck out five, and got solid defense which stranded 10 Rebel runners. A good illustration of that Cougar defense came in the fifth inning from an 8-6-2 putout. Centerfielder Shane Belliston chased David Trujillo's double, threw a relay to shortstop Seth King, who fired a rocket home to catcher Lars Birkeland who scooped the ball and tagged out Joe Jacobitz at the plate.

Doug Jackson got the BYU offense started with a first-inning home run to center as the lead-off batter. Trujillo responded in the bottom of the inning with a double to extend his hitting streak to a league-leading 27 games.

A "sun double" to left field by Birkeland in the second scored Jeff Hiestand for BYU's second run. Hiestand scored BYU's third run in the third off King's single to left.

In the fifth BYU extended its lead to 7-0 when pitcher Jared Bonnell threw wild in trying to pick off Hiestand at first. That error allowed Kainoa Obrey to score from second and advance Hiestand to third. King then drove in Hiestand with a deep double to center. King scored off Michael Wirrick's double to left. Wirrick scored BYU's fourth run of the inning off a Cameron Coughlan double which sent Bonnell packing.

UNLV scored its run in the sixth when Ryan Ruiz hit a two-out double and was doubled in by Brad Beasley.

Belliston extended his team-leading hitting streak to 25 when he beat out an infield single up the middle in the sixth. Belliston then stole second and scored off Matt Carson's single. Carson scored off Obrey's single in the sixth. Carson drove in Jackson in the eighth and scored again off another Obrey single.

BYU's record improves to 33-19 overall and 20-8 in the MWC to earn the No. One seed going into next week's league tournament at San Diego State. UNLV, now 22-30 and 13-16, returns for game three against host BYU on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Game notes: Game two of three, crowd is record at Larry H. Miller Field (3rd largest at BYU home baseball)...BYU is MWC regular season champions...Trujillo extends hitting streak to 27 & Belliston extends streak to 25...Fernley throws 116 pitches to remain winningest NCAA pitcher.

The Automated ScoreBook
                          UNLV at Brigham Young Univ.
               May 11, 2001 at Provo, Utah (Larry H.Miller Field)
UNLV 1 (22-30,13-16 MWC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
SHITANISHI, Garett 2b....  3  0  1  0   1  0  1  2   0
 PRICE, Dan 2b...........  1  0  0  0   0  1  0  1   0
JACOBITZ, Joe lf.........  5  0  1  0   0  1  1  0   0
TRUJILLO, David 1b.......  3  0  2  0   0  0  9  1   0
KITSCH, Trent dh.........  4  0  0  0   0  1  0  0   3
JOHNSON, Brent 3b........  3  0  0  0   1  0  2  1   2
HERTEL, Brad rf..........  3  0  1  0   0  1  2  0   0
 REUSS, Jason ph/rf......  1  0  0  0   0  1  0  0   0
RUIZ, Ryan ss............  3  1  1  0   0  0  1  3   0
BEASLEY, Brad c..........  3  0  2  1   0  0  4  0   0
 NEPA, James ph/c........  1  0  0  0   0  1  1  0   0
CRUZ, John cf............  4  0  0  0   0  0  3  0   5
BONNELL, Jared p.........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0
 MARTIN, C.J. p..........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
 PUPO, Giovanni p........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0
Totals................... 34  1  8  1   2  6 24 10  10
Brigham Young Univ. 11 (33-19,20-8 MWC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
JACKSON, Doug lf.........  3  2  1  1   2  0  0  0   1
BELLISTON, Shane cf......  5  1  1  0   0  0  4  1   4
CARSON, Matt rf..........  5  2  2  2   0  1  1  0   0
OBREY, Kainoa 3b.........  5  1  2  2   0  2  1  2   0
HIESTAND, Jeff dh........  5  3  3  0   0  1  0  0   0
KING, Seth ss............  5  1  3  1   0  0  3  3   1
WIRRICK, Michael 1b......  3  1  1  1   0  0  4  1   1
 LAW, Tim 1b.............  1  0  0  0   0  0  5  0   0
BIRKELAND, Lars c........  4  0  1  1   0  0  8  0   0
COUGHLAN, Cameron 2b.....  4  0  2  1   0  1  0  1   0
FERNLEY, Nate p..........  0  0  0  0   0  0  1  3   0
 CHRISMAN, Jake p........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals................... 40 11 16  9   2  5 27 11   7
Score by Innings                    R  H  E
-------------------------------------------
UNLV................ 000 001 000 -  1  8  2
Brigham Young Univ.. 111 042 02X - 11 16  1
-------------------------------------------
E - RUIZ; BONNELL; OBREY. DP - Rebels 1. LOB - Rebels 10; Cougars 7. 2B -
SHITANISHI; TRUJILLO 2; RUIZ; BEASLEY; OBREY; HIESTAND; KING; WIRRICK;
BIRKELAND; COUGHLAN. HR - JACKSON(2). HBP - TRUJILLO. SH - RUIZ. SB -
BELLISTON.
UNLV                   IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
BONNELL, Jared......  4.2 11  7  5  1  4 26 27
MARTIN, C.J.........  1.1  3  2  2  0  0  6  6
PUPO, Giovanni......  2.0  2  2  2  1  1  8  9
Brigham Young Univ.    IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
FERNLEY, Nate.......  8.0  8  1  1  2  5 31 35
CHRISMAN, Jake......  1.0  0  0  0  0  1  3  3
Win - FERNLEY (14-2).  Loss - BONNELL (4-6).  Save - None.
HB - FERNLEY.
Umpires - Home:John Cortez  1st:Blake Jensen  3rd:Jeff Jenkins
Start: 7:00   Time: 2:26   Attendance: 3,120