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Mountain West Conference Baseball Results: UNLV Is The Surprise Team Of The Mountain West

UNLV which was projected to finish 5th in the preseason conference rankings is currently sitting at 11-2 with the league's best record. The next best records belong to TCU who is ranked seventh in the latest Baseball America poll and BYU, both who currently are 7-4. 

Air Force (4-7)

The Falcons completed in the Surprise Coca-Cola Classic and left Arizona with a 1-3 record. The Falcons only win came in a 10-8 win against Northern Illinois. In that first game the Falcons needed to come from behind. After trailing 5-3 entering the sixth inning Air Force erupted with a five-run sixth inning, highlighted by a two-out grand slam by sophomore Alex Bast. The other three games were against UC Riverside which was a 9-7 loss, 5-0 loss Cal State Bakersfield and the finale was a 4-1 loss against Kansas.

BYU (6-4)

While BYU took two-of-three from the Washington Huskies the third game of the series was a loss which ended the Cougars five-game winning streak. In the final game BYU struggled with their pitching while losing 6-2:

"Mark (Anderson) struggled with his command today and we didn't swing the bat all that well," said BYU coach Vance Law. "The balls we hit were right at people, it was just one of those days. It is disappointing because I have such expectations for this team." 

New Mexico (3-9)

The Lobos had their best series of the season by taking three-of-four games from the University of Texas San Antonio. The first game set the tone for the Lobos during that series as they outscored UTSA, 13-6, which was also their first win of the season:

"It's a step in the right direction," said head coach Ray Birmingham of the team's first win of the season. "We worked on being more aggressive and we made good outs with runners in scoring position. We moved forward against a good team."

Here are highlights from their weekend series.

San Diego State (2-9)

This past weekend, San Diego State took on a tough schedule as they played No. 3 ranked Oklahoma Sooners in two games, then-No.14 ranked California and newly ranked Connecticut. San Diego State went 1-3 over the weekend with the one win coming against Cal 2-1. In The rest of the games, San Diego State was outmatched as they were shut out against Oklahoma 4-0 and again 13-5 with the other loss being at the hands of Connecticut 9-3.

TCU (7-4)

TCU swept Texas Tech in a three-game series to rebound from their three-game losing streak. TCU easily won two of the games 7-0 and 8-1 with the middle game being the close game 8-6. TCU pitcher Matt Purke was back in the lineup for the third game of the series, and we was in good form as he pitched six scoreless innings while striking out six batters.

UNLV (11-2)

The Rebels swept their rival Nevada 9-0.10-6 and 5-0. The player of the series for UNLV was outfielder Rance Roundy had a stellar weekend in which he went 10-for-11 at the plate with a 3-for-3 day with three RBI and scored two runs. UNLV is off to one of their best seasons in years, and are looking to be better than their projected fifth-place finish in the Mountain West.

Utah (2-5)

The Utes traveled to Houston to play at the Astros Minute Maid Park to take part of the Houston Classic, and they had their best weekend of the year. Utah got their first win of the year by narrowly upsetting then-No. 20 ranked Texas A&M 2-1 and then they defeated Baylor 4-3 but they dropped their finale to Kentucky 2-1.