University of Nevada Athletics

                                                    Nevada Probable Lineup

NEVADA PLAYS FIRST WAC ROAD GAMES AT FRESNO STATE
 Nevada(12-9, 4-0 WAC) will play its first Western Athletic Conference road games of this season starting Friday at Fresno State(10-11, 2-2 WAC) and for the second consecutive weeks will be play team with the nickname Bulldogs as they swept the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs last week in Reno.  It also marks the second weekend in a row that the Pack will play a team picked to finish ahead of them in the preseason coaches’ poll, La Tech was picked to finish second and FS first with Nevada third. 
 FS opened with a series spit at Hawai`i dropping the first two games by scores of 4-0 and 2-0 before bouncing back to win the next two 5-0 and 4-2 in 10 innings.
 The first game of the series on Friday gets underway at 6:05 p.m. with Saturday’s doubleheader starting at 2:05 p.m.  The series finale is slated for a 1:05 p.m. first pitch.
 The Pack are 105-101 in their eighth season of WAC play.  Nevada is 14-22 versus FS and 5-13 on the road against the Bulldogs in WAC action.

2008 WAC SCHEDULE:
 Although the teams in the WAC remain the same (Nevada, Fresno State, Hawai`i, Louisiana Tech, San Jose State, New Mexico State and Sacramento State) the schedule format has changed once again as each series will now be four games.  Each series will take place over three days but on one of those days, usually the middle day, the teams will play a doubleheader comprised of two nine-inning games.
Nevada was picked to finish third in the WAC Coaches’ poll behind Fresno State and Louisiana Tech.  Unfortunately for the Pack, it plays eight games versus those two squads, playing a four-game series at home and on the road.  One advantage of the 2008 conference schedule is that the Pack will not play back-to-back road series this season.
 The season-ending WAC Tournament will be held at Louisiana Tech’s J.C. Love Field for the first time May 22-25.  The top six teams qualify for the tournament based on the 32-game conference schedule.

TEAM NOTES  

TEAM:  Nevada opened WAC play with a 4-game series sweep of La Tech last weekend...The 4-0 start equals the best start in WAC play by a Pack squad as the 2006 team also began WAC play 4-0 but lost their next contest...After starting the season 0-5 the Pack have gone 12-3...Nevada leads with WAC in hitting(.331) and fielding percentage(.976) while the squad is fifth in ERA(5.97)...In WAC only play Nevada is first in hitting(.370) and fielding percentage(.993) and rank fourth in pitching(5.03)...Defensively Nevada leads the WAC with 21 double plays turned including a season-high 4 vs. UC Riverside(3/8)...10 times this season the Pack have scored in double figures winning 8 of those contests including a stretch of four wins in a row when scoring in double figures vs. UT Arlington(10), CSUMB(24), CSUMB(16) and UC Riverside(10) while the only loss when scoring double digits was a 17-10 setback to #22 Oregon State...Nevada made use of the WAC’s new 10-run rule after 7-innings defeating La Tech 14-3 on Shaun Kort’s 2-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to end the game....Nevada went 11-3 during a season-high 14-game homestand that ended with a 4-game sweep of La Tech last weekend...Nevada has won two series this year taking 2-of-3 from UC Riverside(3/7-9) and all four from La Tech(3/20-22)...Nevada’s 9-4 loss to UNLV(3/25) snapped a season-high 5-game win streak and 8-game win streak vs. the Rebels...The Pack split its two games with the two-time College World Series Champion Oregon State Beavers winning 10-1, losing 17-10 and the third game was cancelled due to weather...Nevada had a season-high 26 hits and 24 runs in game 1 vs. CSUMB...The team went 1-2 competing at the Southwest Diamond Classic played at Dr. Pepper Ballpark in Frisco, Texas...Nevada spent five days on the road Feb. 26-Mar. 1 which will be the longest stay away from home this season...Nevada was picked to finish third in the Preseason WAC Coaches’ Poll behind Fresno State and Louisiana Tech...Head coach Gary Powers is in his 26th season of directing the Wolf Pack baseball program in 2008 and is the longest tenured coach in the history of Nevada athletics.

AT THE PLATE:  2B-David Ciarlo, 1B-Shaun Kort and 3B-Jason Rodriguez were named the WAC Hitters of the Week three consecutive weeks from Feb. 25 to Mar. 16...Ciarlo Leads the WAC in 4 categories: hitting(.525), slugging %(.797), triples(3), on base %(.594) and ranks in the top 10 in two others...Kort’s current 11-game hit streak in which he is hitting .378 (17-for-45) with 10 runs scored, 15RBI, 4 doubles and three home runs is the longest active streak in the WAC...Ciarlo hit .595(25-for-42) with 15 runs scored, 11RBI, 4 doubles, 2 triples and 2 home runs during career and team season-high 12-game hit streak that was snapped vs. Oregon State(3/14)...12-game hit streak by Ciarlo is the 4th longest in the WAC this season...Nevada boasts the top 3 hitters in the WAC and 4 of the top 12:  David Ciarlo(.525,1st), Jason Rodriguez(.423,2nd), Shaun Kort(.400,3rd) and Matt Bowman(.342,12th)...RF-Mike Hale had 2  hits in each game of the 4 game series vs. La Tech...Hale had a career-high 9-game hit streak in which he hit .484(15-for-31) with 11 runs scored, 5RBI, 6 doubles and a home run snapped at UNLV going 0-for-4...Ciarlo had started 88 consecutive games at second base and played in 113 in a row until missing game 2 of the La Tech series due to illness... Ciarlo(.800,4R,2B,2HR,6RBI) and Kort(.444, R,3RBI) were named the Southwest Diamond Classic All-Tournament squad...3B-Jason Rodriguez leads the WAC with 60 total bases, 12 multi hit games and is tied for the WAC lead with 6 home runs...Rodriguez is second  in the WAC with a .423 batting average and a .769 slugging % and in total ranks in the top 10 in 10 offensive categories in the conference ...Rodriguez hit a home run in 3 consecutive games Mar. 11-14 and four total including his first 2 home run game vs. Oregon State...Kort(1B) and 3B-Jason Rodriguez have started all 21 games at the same position...Rodriguez leads the team with 12 multi hit games and Ciarlo is second with 11...Kort tops the team with 8 multi RBI games which is tied for first in the WAC while Bowman and Rodriguez have 5...Kort leads the WAC with 32RBI...Nevada pinch hitters are hitting .242(8-for-33) with 5 runs scored, a home run and 5RBI...LF-Nick Leid drove in a team and WAC high 7 runs in game 1 vs. CSUMB...Bowman and Kort each had 5 hits in game 1 vs. CSUMB which is the high by any player in the WAC this season and their career highs...Bowman had 3 doubles in game 1 vs. CSUMB which established a new career-high and is the most by any WAC player this season...Freshmen IF-Joe Wallace, OF-Waylen Sing Chow and IF-Garrett Patterson all collected their first collegiate hits in the doubleheader sweep of CSUMB...six different Pack players, Kort, Bowman, Leid, Sadoian, and P-Dan Eastham hit home runs in Nevada’s doubleheader sweep of CSUMB...Kort drove in a career-high 5 runs in game 1 vs. CS Monterey Bay and Bowman had a career-high 4 RBI.

ON THE MOUND:  RHP-Rod Scurry(3-2) won his third consecutive start and equaled his career-high with 9-strikeouts vs. La Tech(3/21)...In those 3 wins Scurry is 3-0 with a 2.37 ERA giving up 10 hits and striking out 17 in 19 innings pitched...RHP-Kyle Howe(2-0) allowed 3 hits including a grand slam in the first inning vs. La Tech(3/20) then did not allow another hit in 7.2 innings on the mound to the Bulldogs as the Pack rallied for the 11-6 victory...Reliever RHP-Derek Achelpohl pitched 6.1 innings of 6 hit, 8 strikeout relief vs. La Tech to earn his first win at Nevada...Nevada has used 15 pitchers in the first 21 games of the season...8 Pack pitchers RHP-Bryan Suarez(2ip), RHP-Sammy Miller(1ip), LHP-Jacob Kaup(1ip), Achelpohl(1ip), LHP-Brock Stassi(1ip), RHP-Dan Eastham(1ip), RHP-Ryan Iodence(1ip) and RHP-Ben Colton(1ip) combined to allow just 5 hits in a 10-0 shutout of Pacific(3/18)...Eastham(4ip), Iodence(1ip), Miller(1ip) and Stassi(1ip) combined earlier in the season to shutout CSUMB 16-0 in the second game of a doubleheader back on Mar. 4...After making two starts this season RHP-Mario Rivera(0-1) came out of the bullpen in the final game vs. UC Riverside and pitched 2 innings of shutout baseball to earn the first save by a Pack pitcher this season and 6th of his career and LHP-Brock Stassi pitched 1.2 innings vs. Saint Mary’s to earn his first career save for the Pack in the next game...Scurry(3-2) and LHP-Chris Garcia(0-2) have made five starts each...Scurry and Howe won their first games of the season pitching 7 innings each in games 1 and 3 of the UC Riverside series...RHP-Dan Eastham got the first win of his career tossing 4 shutout innings in his start vs. CSUMB, he was the first starter to earn a win this season...The Pack’s first two wins of the season came from relieves RHP-Stephen Bautista vs. UT Arlington and RHP-Bryan Suarez vs. CSUMB but 7-of-12 on the season have been by starters.