Sophomore pitcher Darin Gillies reaches back to fire a pitch against Oregon on April 7. The ASU baseball team faces UNLV for a mid-week game on Wednesday then travel to USC Friday. (Photo by Molly J. Smith)Fresh off winning their second consecutive Pac-12 home series, the No. 15 ASU baseball team travels to Las Vegas Wednesday to take on UNLV before heading to USC Friday.
Like any midweek game, the Rebels (22-9, 7-5 Mountain West) will be no pushover.
The Rebels have been ranked at high as No. 18 this season and boast an impressive 13-3 home record.
Brothers junior Patrick Armstrong (.364) and freshman Joey Armstrong (.339) lead a Rebel offense that hits .295 as a team and averages almost 6.4 runs per game.
On the pitching side, UNLV senior closer Andrew Beresford has recorded a decision in nine of his 11 appearances, racking up five wins and four saves.
The Rebels and Sun Devils (19-9-1, 6-6 Pac-12) have or will face four of the same opponents this season, including Pac-12 foe Stanford.
The Rebels went in to Palo Alto, Calif., and recorded a sweep over the Cardinal. They even knocked off Stanford surefire first-round draft pick senior starter Mark Appel in the process.
The Sun Devils have played well lately as well, winning six of their last eight games, including two midweek games last week at Wichita State.
Freshman RJ Ybarra was named Pac-12 Player of the Week for his game-winning heroics against the Shockers and Oregon.
No starter has been named yet for the Sun Devils, but ASU coach Tim Esmay said earlier in the week the bullpen would get a lot of work.
Reach the reporter at dsshapi1@asu.edu or follow on twitter @Danny__Shapiro
