Nevada continues its historic season. Winning two of three games against San Jose State last weekend, the Wolf Pack improved its record to 33-11, while also moving up in the Top-25 polls. Although most of the polls still have Nevada unranked, the Wolf Pack is currently sitting at 24 in the Baseball America poll. The team has also won seven of its last nine games. With a big series still left in this season. Nevada will host Saint Mary’s for a two game midweek series looking to improve on an already extraordinary season.
With this being the second-to-last home series of the regular season, Nevada fans have one more shot at helping the Wolf Pack tuneup for the conference championship, which will be hosted at Peccole Park.
PECCOLE PARK MAGIC
A part of Nevada’s success this season is its ability to play at home. For the year, Nevada has amassed a 19-3 record inside the friendly parameters of Peccole Park. The 86 percent home winning percentage is one of the highest in Divison-I this season. The Wolf Pack more impressively already has one more home win this season than it did all of last year.
This series is the second to last series that Nevada will play in Reno so it is a good opportunity for fans to get a final look at the Wolf Pack. If the Wolf Pack crowd can show up in bunches and make the Saint Mary’s players feel uncomfortable it will be tough for the outmatched Gaels to have any momentum which will make it that much easier for Nevada to clinch another home series and improve on its best season in a long time.
NEVADA GETS A TASTE OF ITS OWN MEDICINE
It is no secret that Nevada is an offensively minded team. Currently on the season the Wolf Pack as a team IS hitting .303, which is good enough for 18th in the country. Led by senior Austin Byler and junior Ryan Howell who both hit over 10 home runs this season, the Wolf Pack can hit with the best of them.
The Wolf Pack’s opponent has the same offensive mentality. While the Gaels are only hitting .292 on the year, it features nine players who are hitting over .300. This includes Zach Kirtley who is hitting .365 and Anthony Villa who is hitting .353 while smashing four home runs and driving in 31 RBI’s ,both of which are good enough for second on the team.
Although Saint Mary’s is overmatched against a nationally-ranked Nevada team, the one thing the Gaels can do is hit. If Saint Mary’s is able to rough up the Wolf Pack’s pitching, then Nevada could be in for a lot of trouble in this series.
Stone Harper can be reached at sharper@sagebrush. unr.edu and on Twitter @StoneHarperNVSB.