Sophomore right-hander Hever Bueno probably didn't envision his first collegiate start being called due to an outage affecting a stadium light pole in the city made famous for its over-the-top luminescence.
What happened at Earl E. Wilson Stadium in Las Vegas Tuesday night was exactly that.
UNLV tallied three runs in the seventh off freshman left-hander Eli Lingos (1-1) to take the lead and went on to win 7-6 on Wednesday, completing the final six innings of a suspended game and earning their first win against ASU since 2002.
Trailing 5-3 in the seventh, the Rebels (13-18, 2-13 Mountain West) were set up with runners on first and second and one out after a hit by pitch and a walk.
A near-perfect bunt that hugged the line at third off the bat of senior first baseman Morgan Stotts was placed effectively enough to just about ensure an infield single.
Sophomore third baseman David Greer fielded the ball and launched an errant throw that pulled senior first baseman Joey Bielek off the bag at first and sailed into foul territory in right, plating two runs and allowing Stotts to advance to third.
Stotts would then score after junior left fielder AJ VanMeetran (3-for-4, two RBIs) doubled off junior right-hander David Graybill to cap a three-run seventh.
In the bottom of the eighth with the bases loaded for UNLV designated hitter Joey Swanner, ASU redshirt senior right fielder Trever Allen was positioned about 10 feet away from home plate along the third base line with the expectation of a bunt.
Swanner did not, and ended up finding Allen anyhow – a sacrifice fly to right field tacked on an insurance run to give the Rebels a 7-5 lead.
It seemed that even though UNLV did everything right in the second half of its game against the No. 5 team in the country, the way the ninth played out gave fans the impression that the 'Cardiac Devils' had some late-inning magic remaining.
A Glendale native and Mountain Ridge High School product, UNLV freshman closer Blaze Bohall got his way this time around, earning his first career save against his hometown team.
Despite scoring five runs in the first two innings, the Sun Devils (21-9, 9-3 Pac-12) were shutout for the six of the final seven, managing just two in the top of the ninth after three consecutive singles.
Sophomore shortstop Colby Woodmansee struck out three times and went 1-for-5, while freshman second baseman Andrew Snow tallied two RBIs and went 1 for 3 over nine innings.
ASU will return home to face the Arizona Wildcats at Phoenix Muni beginning Saturday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m. on ESPNU.
Reach the reporter at smodrich@asu.edu or follow @StefanJModrich on Twitter.
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