ABOUT NEVADA
Week seven of the 2010 softball season brings the Nevada softball team back home as the Wolf Pack opens Western Athletic Conference play with a showdown against Fresno State ... These teams tied for the WAC regular season title last year after Nevada won it outright in 2008 ... Nevada enters WAC play 13-12 on the season ... Fresno State is 19-11 and receiving votes in the national Top 25 polls ... The teams will play a single game on Friday before a doubleheader on Saturday ... Saturday will be Dollar Day at Hixson Park as all fans will get in to the doubleheader for just $1 ... Nevada is 44-6 all-time at Hixson Park, a winner percentage of .880 ... Fresno State is one of two WAC teams (Boise State is the other) that has never played at Hixson Park ... Nevada has won seven of its last eight games ... The Wolf Pack is picked to finish second in this year’s Western Athletic Conference race ... Nevada had three players on the Preseason All-WAC first team in Katie Holverson, Sam Bias and Noelle Micka ... Holverson, last year’s WAC Pitcher of the Year, is on the initial watch list for the USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Year Award ... The Wolf Pack returns five position-player starters and both pitchers from last year ... This is the second season under head coach Matt Meuchel ... Last year, the Wolf Pack went 40-19 in 2009 and won the WAC Championship with a 15-5 mark ... Nevada concluded the 2009 season at the NCAA Regional in Palo Alto, Calif.
ABOUT THIS SERIES
Nevada and Fresno State have met 34 times previously and Fresno State has the upper hand in the series, 26-8 ... The two teams met four times last year with Nevada winning one of the three regular season matchups ... All four of the 2009 games were played in Fresno, Calif. ... Nevada won two of the three meetings in 2008 so over the last two years, the series is 4-3 in favor of Fresno State ... Fresno State is picked to win the WAC this year with Nevada picked second ... These two teams met in the WAC championship last year as Nevada has made the WAC Tournament championship every year since the tourney was reinstated ... Fresno State went 4-1 last week at its own Bayer CropScience Classic ... Mackenzie Oakes was named MVP
of the tournament and Andrea Ortega was named to the all-tournament team for Fresno State in the tournament.
FOLLOW ONLINE
There are multiple ways to follow Wolf Pack softball this year. Every game (home and away) is scheduled to have an audio broadcast live on www.nevadawolfpack.com, technology permitting. For home games, a video streaming product is planned this season with audio for select games. For more information, visit NevadaWolfPack.com and select the “Multimedia” tab.
In addition, Live Stats will be available on the Website with game and season updates available on Facebook (Facebook.com/NevadaWolfPack) and Twitter (Twitter.com/NevadaWolfPack).
Last year, Wolf Pack radio debuted on the radio in Northern Nevada and a select number of games will again be broadcast this year. Seven games have already aired with the next scheduled broadcasts coming in April – the Pack’s series at New Mexico State. Nevada’s games in the WAC Tournament and any postseason games will also be carried.
Complete game notes available via the link above.
