Sun Devils strike early, rout Rebels

The last time UNLV faced a ranked team from the Pac-12 Conference, the Rebels went to then-No. 9 Stanford about a month ago and swept the series.

No. 15 Arizona State let the Rebels know early that Wednesday night would be a considerably different experience.

The Sun Devils scored eight runs in the second inning to take control and cruise to an 11-3 victory at Wilson Stadium.

“It’s hard to jump-start an offense when you’re chasing eight out of the gate,” UNLV coach Tim Chambers said.

Arizona State (20-9-1) had nine hits in the second inning — just six the rest of the game — that included a three-run home run by Trever Allen.

UNLV freshman right-hander Bryan Bonnell, making his first start, lasted 1 1/3 innings, giving up seven hits and seven runs.

“He left everything up,” Chambers said. “He had good stuff. We’ll go back to him. I have a lot of confidence in him.

“His heart was racing, I know that for sure. He was next to me in the prayer, and I had to hold his hand, so I could feel his heartbeat. He’s going to be a darned good one.”

Chambers usually would’ve gone with senior left-hander Mark Shannon for a midweek start. But Shannon, who also plays center field, was sore after last weekend’s three-game series at Fresno State, and Chambers wanted to make sure he got his rest with UNR coming to town beginning Friday.

“I felt like, I don’t want to run him out there for 80, 90 pitches on a Wednesday and then ask him to play all weekend,” Chambers said.

Pitching, however, wasn’t the entire problem for the Rebels (22-10). Their hitting was at least as disappointing.

“Our job as hitters, we should’ve worked them a little more and got their pitch count up,” said UNLV left fielder Joey Swanner, who went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

Other than stringing together three runs on four hits in the second, the Rebels did little at the plate. They put together five hits and no runs the remainder of the game. At one point, in fact, UNLV struck out five times in six at-bats.

“I expected us to score more than three, for sure,” Chambers said. “If we could hold them down, I didn’t think eight was going to beat us. I really didn’t. We’ve been better than that against better pitching lately.”

UNLV makes a trip to Arizona State on April 24 for a rematch.

The Rebels need to get momentum going with the return to Mountain West play with this weekend’s three-game series against UNR. The Rebels have gone 8-7 in their past 15 games after starting 14-3.

“We’re just not playing to our full potential,” Swanner said. “We’ve got to put together a good effort (today) at practice and come back exploding everywhere. Hopefully, we can get back on track.”

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65.