RECRUITING: Six from city to sign with UNLV baseball

No school ever has won a College World Series or Mountain West Conference title on national signing day.

But UNLV’s baseball program hopes it built a foundation for a team with that kind of potential Wednesday, when the weeklong NCAA early signing period began for most sports.

First-year UNLV coach Tim Chambers said Wednesday evening he had received letters of intent from Rancho pitchers Eric Holdren and Zak Qualls along with shortstop Brandon Pletsch.

Chambers couldn’t comment on unsigned recruits per NCAA rules. However, Bishop Gorman catcher/outfielder Erik Van Meetren and third baseman/pitcher T.J. White as well as Las Vegas High pitcher Erick Fedde all said their letters of intent are on the way to the Rebels, too.

“I don’t know how you fill the seats up if you don’t have local guys in your lineup and on your team,” Chambers said. “We envision packing the house.”

Chambers was hired as UNLV’s coach June 11 after an 11-year run at the College of Southern Nevada, which he guided to the Junior College World Series title in 2003 and another appearance last season.

He replaced Buddy Gouldsmith, who was fired May 18 after seven years. Gouldsmith won conference championships in 2004 and 2005 but didn’t post a winning season since.

“Buddy Gouldsmith, he didn’t really do a whole lot of recruiting around town, which I know Chambers is going to do,” Holdren said. “He’s going to attract a lot more people to come out to the games, and that should help a lot.”

White agreed, saying what led him to commit to UNLV shortly after Chambers was hired was “just the fact that he actually asked most of us.”

“With a bunch of local guys, we all know each other,” White added. “It’ll be fun to actually get to play with each other. It’s the first time so many people have gone to UNLV, so it’ll be a cool experience.”

But the Rebels’ recruiting class isn’t built solely around raising attendance, which averaged only 389 fans per home game last year. It also figures to help UNLV become a winning program again.

All three of the Rancho recruits earned first-team all-state honors last season, and Fedde and White were second-team picks. Van Meetren took second-team all-state honors as a sophomore.

“I think if we could roll ahead about three years and look back, I think you’ve got one of the better recruiting classes in the Mountain West, if not the country,” Rancho coach Tom Pletsch said. “Before they’re done at UNLV, they’ll definitely make some noise.”

Though the amateur draft in June could complicate some of their decisions, the recruits voiced a similar sense of pride in hoping to bring UNLV back to prominence together.

“It’s a lot better than going to LSU or Texas,” Qualls said. “I get to stay close to my family, and I get to play with kids I grew up with my whole life.”

Holdren and Qualls backed out of previous commitments to San Diego State after Chambers was hired.

Brandon Pletsch said he hadn’t considered the Rebels until Chambers approached him.

“He made it that much easier to put my mind toward UNLV,” he said. “I liked everything he’s done at CSN, and hopefully he does the same thing at UNLV.”

Fedde said the local recruits should share a bond throughout college as the first class brought in by Chambers.

“It was just a good experience today, just a day to remember,” Fedde said.

Perhaps even more memorable in three or four years.