Former Irvine Valley baseball assistant coach Tony Cappuccilli has helped UNLV reach the postseason in his first year as part of the Rebel coaching staff.
Cappuccilli, who is a volunteer assistant coach for UNLV, spent the previous four seasons with the Lasers.
UNLV won the Mountain West regular season title and has a record of 35-23 overall.
UNLV is the No. 2 seed in the Corvallis (Oregon) Regional of the NCAA Tournament that begins on Friday.
The Rebels will open tournament play against No. 3 UC Irvine (35-22) on Friday afternoon.
The Rebels earned their first at-large bid since 1989 and will be playing in their 11th NCAA Tournament.
The winner between the Rebels and Anteaters will play the winner of No. 1 Oregon State and No. 4 North Dakota State on Saturday night.
Oregon State is the No. 1 overall seed.
Cappuccilli was the top assistant at Irvine Valley, a key recruiter and batting coach.
He is also the current head coach of the Alaska Baseball League during the summer months.
The native of Huntington Beach was a star player at Edison High and then at the University of Nevada Reno.
He helped the Wolf Pack to a Big West Championship in 2000.
When at Edison, Cappuccilli broke the Orange County career home run record.
