March 22, 2012
Nevada Game Notes 
THIS?WEEK
Coming off a scheduled break, a well-rested Nevada softball team will open play in its final season in the Western Athletic Conference on?Friday when the Wolf Pack plays host to preseason favorite and perennial powerhouse Fresno State at Hixson Park. The teams will play a single game on Friday at 3 p.m. with a doubleheader scheduled for 1 p.m on?Saturday.
HOME SWEET HOME
After playing its first 20 games on the road, Nevada has played its last eight games at home at Hixson Park. The stretch will extend to 11 straight games with?Fresno?State coming to town this week.?Following the series with the Bulldogs, Nevada will hit the road for a five-game road trip - a doubleheader at Weber State before a three-game WAC set at Utah State - next week.
Nevada's bats have enjoyed the home stretch. The Wolf Pack entered it first home game in the first week of March with a team batting average of .248. After eight games at home, Nevada has seen its average rise to .263 on the year as the Pack has hit .300 as a team at home.
Karley Hopkins (.433) and Lauren Lastrapes (.407) have especially enjoyed the friendly confines and are two of five Nevada players who are hitting better than .300 at home.
WE'RE GOING STREAKING
Sophomore shortstop Karley Hopkins, who earned all-region honors from the NFCA last season, has been on a tear for the Wolf Pack. After a cool start, Hopkins has raised her batting average to a team-leading .327 with six doubles and an on-base percentage of .400. She enters this weekend with a career-best hitting streak of 12 games.
ON THE AIR
All Nevada home games will have video streaming available at NevadaWolfPack.com.
The next radio broadcast for the Wolf Pack softball team will be in April when San Jose State comes to Hixson Park for a three-game WAC set.
FOLLOW ALONG
All of Nevada's games will feature GameTracker coverage on NevadaWolfPack.com. Additionally, fans can get updates and more information by following @NevSoftball on Twitter.
RECAP
Nevada is coming off a weekend off. Prior to that, the Wolf Pack went 3-3 at its own Wolf Pack Classic at Hixson?Park March 9-11. Nevada won all three games against San Diego and went 4-1 for the season against the Toreros while the Pack fell in three games to Wisconsin, including an 11-9 heartbreaker in nine innings on the first day of the event.
BUTERA NAMED WAC HITTER OF THE WEEK (March 5)
DENVER - Nevada's Ashley Butera and Hawai`i's Stephanie Ricketts have been named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for Feb. 27-March 4. This is the first-ever honor for Butera and the second of the season and ninth overall for Ricketts.
Butera, a freshman catcher player from Saugus, Calif. (Saugus HS), hit .533 (8-for-15) with a triple and four home runs in five games for the Wolf Pack at the San Diego Classic last weekend. Butera recorded 22 total bases as she had an on-base percentage of .563 and a slugging percentage of 1.467. She drove in seven runs and scored four. Butera started behind the plate all five games and played errorless ball at catcher. In Nevada's win over San Diego State, she started the Wolf Pack comeback with a solo home run in the fourth inning.
PACK PICKED?FIFTH
Nevada was picked to finish fifth in its final season in the Western Athletic Conference in the preseason poll, which was voted on by the coaches. Fresno State took the top spot in the preseason poll with 44 points and three first-place votes. Hawai`i came in second, picking up two first-place votes and 42 points, followed by New Mexico State in third place with 37 points and two first-place votes. Brigham Young received the other first-place vote and came in fourth place with 35 points. Nevada was picked to finish fifth with 20 points, followed by San Jose State and Louisiana Tech tied for sixth with 17 points apiece. Utah State rounded out the poll in eighth place with 12 points.
JONES OUT
Nevada was dealt a blow on the eve of the season when junior third baseman Erin Jones suffered a knee injury in practice. Jones is expected to miss the entire season. The junior was Nevada's lone representative on the Preseason?All-WAC team after she earned second-team honors in 2011 by batting .362 with five home runs and 21 in her first season with the Pack after transferring from Sacramento State.
