Air Force Academy

First Place UNLV Comes To Falcon Field To Take On Air Force
The Air Force baseball team (6-36, 1-20 6th MWC) plays host to UNLV (22-24, 16-5 T-1st MWC) for a three game set from Fri.-Sun., May 6-8, at Falcon Field. Live stats will be available for all three games at airforcesports.com and radio will be available on the Sports Animal AM 1300 and through Bolt Action for Saturday and Sunday's games.

The Falcons
Air Force is 6-36 on the season and 1-20 in Mountain West Conference play. The Falcons went 1-2 over the weekend against BYU. Karl Bolt's walk-off home run in the 11th inning of game two gave the Falcons their first conference win in 48 tries. Air Force lost the first game 17-2 and the third game 17-9.

The Falcons are batting .268 as a team. Bolt headlines the AFA offense with a .321 average and 10 home runs and an .449 on base percentage. The Air Force pitching staff has a 12.04 earned run average, led by junior righty Paul Pratt, who is 2-9 with 39 strikeouts in 57.1 innings pitched.

Head Coach Mike Hutcheon
Mike Hutcheon begins his second year as the head coach of the Falcons. Prior to his stint at the Academy, Hutcheon spent the last four years at Bethel College in Mishawaka, Ind. and compiled a record of 130-78 during his tenure there. In 2002, Hutcheon was named the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association (NCCAA) National Coach of the year after leading Bethel to the 2002 NCCAA national title. Prior to his stay at Bethel, Hutcheon coached at Belhaven College in Jackson, Miss., for five seasons where he went 109-62. Through ten seasons as a head coach, Hutcheon has compiled a 251-225 record and is 12-85 at Air Force.

Scouting UNLV
The Rebels of UNLV, located in Las Vegas, Nev., enter the week with a 22-24 record after taking 2-of-3 at San Diego State last weekend. Buddy Gouldsmith is 59-48 in his second year as the head coach for UNLV. The Rebels are currently tied for first in the Mountain West Conference with a 16-5 record. UNLV is batting .294 as a team, led by soph. catcher Justin Tellam, who is batting .291 with 12 homers and 28 RBI. The UNLV pitching staff has an earned run average of 5.46 and are led by junior right-hander Matt Luca, who is 3-6 with 49 K's in 66.0 innings pitched with a 4.50 ERA.

AFA-UNLV History/Notes/Etc.
UNLV leads the all-time series 51-14...last year, the two teams met 7 times, with UNLV winning all 7 of the contests...The Falcons were swept in a three game set at UNLV earlier this season...Falcons went 1-5 at Earl E. Wilson Stadium last year with the one win coming at the 04 MWC Championships over BYU...Junior right-hander Paul Vignola is a Las Vegas native, attending Green Valley HS prior to the Air Force Academy.

AFA-UNLV: The Last Meeting
UNLV completed a three-game sweep over the Air Force baseball team with a 13-2 win in Mountain West Conference action, Sunday afternoon at Earl E. Wilson Stadium. The Falcons fall to 4-16 on the season and 0-3 in conference play.

The Rebels (9-15, 3-0) recorded 15 base hits off of the Falcons for the third game in a row. Starter Matt Luca (2-4) earned the win for UNLV, going five innings and allowing two runs on seven hits while striking out four.

John Meyers (0-1), who made hit first-career start for the Falcons, took the loss, allowing six runs, four earned, in 2.2 innings of work. Kyle DePierre made his 2005 debut in relief for AFA, striking out two in 1.1 innings of work. Mitch Brown and Sam Rosener also pitched two innings each in relief.

The Falcons, who were held to two hits the day before, came out the gates swinging as three base hits off Luca produced two runs in the first inning to give AFA the early 2-0 lead. Geno Salazar, who singled with one out, came around to score on Dustin Smith's double for the first run. Matt Ghigna singled to advance Smith to third and then Nathan DeRohan's sacrifice fly scored Smith.

UNLV scored a run in the second and then put up five runs in the third to go ahead 6-2. The Rebels scored two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth to make it a 9-2 game. UNLV added four more runs late in the game to make it 13-2.

The Falcons were held to eight hits in the game, with Smith and DeRohan each recording two hits apiece.

Hitting/Offensive Notes
The Falcons batted .272 in the BYU series...Dale Kasel batted .500 against BYU, going 4-for-8 with a homer and three RBI...The Falcons hit five home runs against BYU, the most in a Mountain West series this year...Price Paramore batted .400 over the weekend, hitting a home run and driving in five runs...Karl Bolt's walk-off homer over BYU snapped a 47 game conference losing streak...The Falcons last conference win was a 17-11 win over BYU on May 17, 2003...Nathan DeRohan and Jon Polston also homered against the Cougars...The Falcons were 3-for-3 on stolen base attempts vs. BYU.

Pitching Notes
The Falcons pitching staff had a 11.17 ERA for the BYU series...Kyle DePierre retired all six batters he faced in game two vs. BYU to earn his first-career win...Clayton Couch pitched six strong innings against BYU in game two, allowing five runs on seven hits...Mitch Brown did not allow a run in two innings of relief in game two...Mike Garrison, DePierre and Kyle Yamamoto appeared in two of the three games vs. BYU.

Fielding Notes
The Falcons fielded .976 against BYU, committing just three errors over the weekend...AFA played its 10th errorless game of the season, surpassing last years' total of eight errorless games...Jon Polston lis second in the conference with 16 base runners thrown out...Nathan DeRohan and Geno Salazar are among the top 10 in the conference in assists...Karl Bolt is fourth in the conference in putouts.

Probable Starters
Pos. Player (Yr./BA/HR/RBI/SB)
1B Karl Bolt (So./.321/10/30/2) Belted game-winning walk-off home run vs. BYU
2B Troy Jeffers (Fr./.250/1/20/4) Batted .357 (5-for-14) in BYU series
SS Geno Salazar (So./.292/4/21/1) Third on team with 21 RBI and four homers
3B Nathan DeRohan (Sr./.254/7/17/3) Leads team with three homers in MWC play
LF Price Paramore (Jr./.295/2/15/6) Leads team with .373 average in MWC play
CF Reid Lamson (Sr./.313/1/15/15) Leads conference with 15 stolen bases
RF Dale Kasel (Sr./.215/2/10/1) Batted .500 (4-for-8) with a homer vs. BYU
C Jon Polston (So./.231/2/5/3) Has started 27 games at catcher; homered vs. BYU
DH Dustin Smith (Jr./.315/2/15/1) Drove in a run vs. BYU
Pos. Player (Yr./W-L/IP/BB/K)
SP Kyle DePierre (Jr./1-3/25.0/18/27) Earned first-career win vs. BYU
SP Clayton Couch (Jr./0-1/18.1/7/10) Went 6.0 solid innings vs. BYU

Bolt Named to Service Academies All-Tournament Team
Sophomore first baseman Karl Bolt was named to the 2005 Service Academies Spring Classic All-Tournament Team for his efforts this past weekend. Bolt led the Falcons by batting .375 over the weekend hitting two home runs at USA Stadium in Millington, Tenn.

Bolt, Pratt Sweep MWC Player & Pitcher of the Week Honors
Karl Bolt and Paul Pratt were named MWC Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively on Feb. 7. Bolt was 6-for-13 (.462) with a pair of home runs, 4 runs scored and 6 RBI in a 4-game series vs. Southern Utah. Pratt, from Tooele, Utah, tossed a complete-game 5-hitter in Air Force's opening game vs. Southern Utah, giving the Falcons an 8-2 victory. In his first appearance since serving a two-year mission, he struck out 7 batters, while allowing 2 earned runs and 2 walks.

Up Next: Utah
The Falcons hit the road next weekend, playing their final road-conference games at Utah from Fri.-Sat., May 13-15. Air Force then concludes its 2005 regular season with a three-game set at home against New Mexico from May 19-21.

Falcons Announce 2005 Radio Schedule
Eight regular-season games, plus the Mountain West Conference Tournament will be broadcast in Colorado Springs on The Sports Animal AM 1300. Jay Ritchie, in his eighth season of Air Force baseball, will do the play-by-play. Dave Toller will handle the color commentary. The pregame show begins 20 minutes before the first pitch.

Telephone: The radio broadcast can also be heard on TeamLine by dialing 1-800-846-4700. The team access code is 0671. The service is available on subscription basis only.

Internet: The broadcast can also be heard on the internet at www.AirForceSports.com. The service is on a subscription basis only by clicking on the "Bolt Action" box on the front page.

2005 Air Force Baseball Broadcast Schedule (The Sports Animal AM 1300)
Date Opponent Game Time
Sat. May 7 UNLV 1 p.m.
Sun. May 8 UNLV Noon
Sat. May 21 New Mexico Noon
Wed.-Sat. May 25-28 MWC Tournament TBA