LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) – The UNLV Hustlin’ Rebels continue its season-high 11 game homestand with a two-game series against Utah Tech and its annual game at the Las Vegas Ballpark against Arizona State. UNLV and Utah Tech will square off on Saturday, March 21 at 6:05 pm before the series finale on Sunday, March 22 at 12:05 pm. Against the Sun Devils, first pitch is scheduled for 6:05 pm on the Mountain West Network.
The Hustlin’ Rebels and Trailblazers have met seven times in the all-time series dating back to the 2022 season, as they will meet up a combined four times this season. Utah Tech will be playing its final season in the WAC and join the Mountain West beginning in the 2027 season. Utah Tech was picked to finish sixth in the Western Athletic Conference in the league’s 2026 preseason coaches poll.
For the Sun Devils, they won two of three games against TCU and picked up a midweek win on Tuesday, March 17 against Grand Canyon with a 4-3 final in 10 innings. Former Rebels Dean Toigo and Alex Overbay will be making their return to Las Vegas as Toigo was named the Mountain West Co-Player of the Year, while Overbay led the team with seven saves.
PROMOTIONAL ITEMS: Join us for Military Appreciation Weekend as we recognize and thank those who have served, with camo UNLV stickers available for fans while supplies last. Fans can also enjoy $5 mimosas and Bloody Marys on Sunday courtesy of Smoken Sam’s.
FOLLOW ALONG: Fans can follow this weekend’s series against Utah Tech and Arizona State through live stats, live video and social media. Links to stats and live video can be found online at UNLVRebels.com in the “schedule” section of the team’s baseball page as well as on the team’s official social media channels.
HISTORICALLY SPEAKING: The Rebels own a 7-0 edge in the all-time head-to-head series against Utah Tech that dates back to 2022, while Arizona State holds the overall series lead at 69-23-1 that dates back to 1974.
LOOKING BACK: The Hustlin’ Rebels were swept on the road against Air Force to kick off conference play, but bounced back with a 4-3 midweek home win against Cal State Fullerton.
Against the Falcons in game one of the series, Jonny Rodriguez paced the Rebels offensively, going 2-for-3 with two doubles and two RBI. Nin Burns II added a hit, an RBI and a run scored. Drew Barragan also doubled and scored a run. Carson Lane was credited with the loss after going 5.0 innings where he gave up eight runs (four earned), seven hits, three walks and three strikeouts.
In game two and threes, a combined 60 runs were scored with the Scarlet & Gray falling 18-16 in game two and 15-11 in game three. Burns II went a combined 4-for-8 with three RBI, two runs scored, one triple and one walk. Ayden Garcia notched a 2-for-5 stat line with four RBI, two runs scored and belted one home run. Reggie Bussey had a 4-for-9 day with one RBI, three runs scored, one home run and one walk. Marcos Rosales also posted a quartet of hits with two RBI and three runs scored.
Against Cal State Fullerton, UNLV pitchers struck out 12 Titans led by Jase Evangelista’s four. Evangelista recorded his third win of the season after closing the door with 2.2 innings of work with three hits, one earned run, one walk and four strikeouts. Ryan Marton made his Rebel debut starting on the mound pitching the opening inning where he didn’t allow a hit and struck out two batters on 19 pitches. Barragan and Cooper Sheff both notched two hits apiece. Gunnar Myro drove in a pair of runs on a 0-for-2 night.
NEWCOMERS MAKE AN IMMEDIATE IMPACT: The UNLV Rebels’ 2026 roster features 26 newcomers with 25 transfers and one true freshman; however, two of the transfers will not play this year due to injury, Drew Charney) and Kevin Smith. Seventeen of those newcomers made their Rebel debuts in the season-opening, nonconference series against the Austin Peay Governors. Delving deeper, seven of those first-year Rebels have had a minimum of 60 plate appearances, while eight more have pitched in at least five games. Nin Burns II and Marcos Rosales have appeared in all 22 contests, as the former has started all games in right field, while the latter has gotten 21 starts at second base. Drew Barragan and senior Ayden Garcia have seen action in 21 and 19 games, respectively. Jayden Sanchez has seen time in 14 games as well, with seven starts in center field. On the mound, the Scarlet & Gray has gotten starts from four newcomers – Parker Dillhoff, Felix Ong, Yates Bland and Ryan Marton.
REBELS PICKED SIXTH: UNLV was predicted to finish the 2026 conference season in sixth place (32 points) by the nine head coaches. The Rebels was slotted behind UNR (60 points/five first-place votes), Fresno State (55 points/three votes), conference newcomer Grand Canyon (47 points/one first-place votes), New Mexico (36 points) and San Jose State (33 points), who was picked to finish first through fifth, respectively. San Diego State (30 points), Washington State (17) and Air Force (14) were tabbed to conclude the year in seventh, eighth and ninth.
LANE TABBED TO MW’S PRESEASON TEAM: UNLV baseball’s Carson Lane was named to the MW’s Preseason All-Conference Team, which was voted on by the league’s nine head coaches. The honor marks his first preseason All-Conference selection during his time with the Scarlet & Gray. Lane, a junior right-handed pitcher from Huntington Beach, California, was named to last season’s All-MW First Team in his second season with the Hustlin’ Rebels where he posted the second-most wins in MW action (5) and the third-most strikeouts in conference play (61). In MW action, Lane registered a 4.45 ERA in 56.2 innings after allowing 28 earned runs (30 total). He posted the fourth best opponent batting average at .230 and his season was highlighted by helping throw UNLV’s first no-hitter since 2003 where he went eight innings striking out nine Fresno State batters on three walks en route to winning MW Pitcher of the Week and College Baseball Foundation (CBF) National Pitcher of the Week accolades. The junior led the Rebels with 85 strikeouts, third among MW pitchers and recorded the second-best ERA in the MW (4.23) with a 6-4 record.
REBEL RETURNERS: Including All-Mountain West First Team honoree in Carson Lane, the Scarlet & Gray will see veterans Cooper Sheff and Gunnar Myro make their returns to the starting lineup. Sheff, a redshirt sophomore infielder, played in 53 games and started 49 of them where he batted .281 (fifth on the team) with 54 hits (fourth on the team) including 12 doubles, a triple and six home runs. The Las Vegas native brought in 30 RBI, scored the third-most runs on the team (41) and was named the MW Freshman of the Week three times last season. Myro, a junior from Las Vegas, played in 43 games with 35 starts where he batted .260 with a career-high 32 hits including four doubles and three home runs.
NEW REBEL PITCHERS: The Rebels welcome 26 newcomers, including key starting pitchers in Parker Dillhoff and Felix Ong. Dillhoff, who transferred from Louisiana, made nine appearances with two starts, throwing 7.1 innings with 10 hits allowed along with 11 earned runs. He struck out seven batters and collected a season-high four strikeouts in his Rajun Cajun debut where he threw two innings in a start against San Jose State. Ong, a sophomore transfer out of Florida, pitched in three games out of the UF bullpen as a true freshman. He fanned six batters in 3 1/3 innings pitched.
SCOUTING THE REBELS: UNLV went 31-23 and punched its ticket to the Credit Union 1 Mountain West Championship for the first time since 2022 and 21st overall tournament berth. The Scarlet & Gray earned the four seed where they fell to the fifth-seeded Aztecs of San Diego State, 8-0, in the first round contest. The Scarlet & Gray returns 10 letterwinners from last year’s team, and that includes four positional players and two starting pitchers – six pitchers in all.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS: Utah Tech snapped its five-game losing streak with a 17-13 win against Fresno State on Thursday in the first of a two-game midweek series against the Bulldogs. In that game, UTU scored a season-high 17 runs and outhit them, 16-12, with Kyle McDaniel leading the way with three hits and a career-high tying five RBI out of the lead-off spot. Petey Soto Jr. collected three hits of his own to go with his three RBI and three runs scored. In a 18-5 Tuesday night home loss to BYU, Ryan Kroepel went 3-for-4 at the plate with a walk and two runs scored to lead the Blazer offense, which rapped out eight hits on the night. Soto Jr. leads the Trailblazers in batting average (.392) and doubles, while McDaniel leads the charge with 24 RBI and a .459 on-base percentage.
Senior right-handed pitcher Dakoda West struck out a career high eight over 6.2 IP in his start against Austin Peay on March 6. He collected another solid start at Santa Clara, where he fanned three and surrendered only two runs and six hits over 5.2 innings pitched. Junior right-handed pitcher Brandon Kosel struck out a career-high five batters and allowed two runs and one hit over 5.2 innings in the series finale against Santa Clara.
Arizona State’s Landon Hairston’s 29 RBI this season are tied for 28th in the country and seventh in the Big 12. Former Rebel Dean Toigo was voted by the Big 12 coaches as the conference’s Preseason Newcomer of the Year and after somewhat of a slow start, that honorific has started to look more fitting. Toigo has homered in six of the last seven games for the Sun Devils and is up to nine homers on the year, tied for third in the Big 12 and 24th nationally.
On the mound, Cole Carlon has a team-high five starts where he has racked up a 2.77 ERA in 26 innings pitched with a 2-1 ledger, has given up 16 hits, nine runs, eight earned runs with 40 strikeouts and has an opponent batting average of .170.
2026 SEASON: UNLV baseball will play a total of 55 regular season games in 2026, with five of those against two teams that participated in last season’s NCAA Tournament. In all, the Rebels will play 32 home contests in Las Vegas with 31 of those on campus at Earl E. Wilson Stadium and one more – a March 23 affair against Arizona State – at the Las Vegas Ballpark in Downtown Summerlin.
In addition to the 24 Mountain West contests, the Scarlet & Gray’s season slate is highlighted by 30 nonconference games against 15 squads that hail from 10 different leagues. Overall, these 15 teams compiled a .464 winning percentage, and five of those finished with winning records. Delving deeper, four – Austin Peay (ASUN), Cal State Fullerton (Big West), Milwaukee (Horizon) and Southern Illinois (Missouri Valley) finished in the top three of their respective conference standings. Moreover, six of 2026’s foes had an end-of-year NCAA RPI that was 125th or better, with six of those in the top 90: Arizona State at No. 49, BYU at No. 62 and Austin Peay at No. 90.
