RENO " The Nevada Wolf Pack baseball team came within three pitches of earning its first winning streak of the season Sunday at Peccole Park.
"It's disappointing we didn't win the game," Pack coach Gary Powers said after a 7-4 loss to the Washington Huskies dropped his team to 3-8 on the year. "But we're making steps in the right direction."
Take away three pitches to Washington right fielder Kyle Conley and the Wolf Pack might be sitting on a two-game winning streak. Conley deposited each of those three pitches over the left field fence for three home runs, driving in all seven of the Huskies runs to even Washington's record at 6-6.
"He's an experienced hitter," Powers said. "He knew what he needed to do in today's environment (the wind was blowing out to left) and he took advantage of our mistakes."
Conley, who also homered in Washington's 11-2 victory on Friday, hit four homers and drove in eight runs in the three-game series.
"He did a good job of getting lift on those balls," said Wolf Pack starter Chris Garcia, who allowed Conley's first two homers. "I made two mistakes and he made me pay."
Conley's first homer of the game, a three-run shot, gave Washington a 3-1 lead in the third inning. He then slammed a two-run homer in the fifth for a 5-3 lead. His final blast, off reliever Beau Witsoe, gave Washington a 7-4 lead in the ninth.
Powers, though, refused to blame the loss on Conley's three homers.
"We still could have won this game even with his three homers," Powers said. "We had a lot of opportunities to win this game."
The Wolf Pack, which had 11 hits, left 10 runners on base. The Pack, which beat Washington, 3-2, on Saturday to break a five-game losing streak, had six hits through the first three innings but had only one run to show for it. The first six hitters reached base in the fourth but only two scored.
"The good thing is we had a lot of runners on base," said first baseman Shaun Kort, who had two hits. "So we're taking steps forward."
"We got ourselves in a lot of good situations," Powers said. "We didn't take advantage of them, but at least we got in those situations. There's been a lot of games when we didn't get into those situations."
The Pack tied the game at 3 with a pair of runs in the fourth. Travis Simas walked with the bases loaded and Westley Moss beat out an infield single for the two runs. The hit was Moss' first hit of the year in 22 at-bats.
"It's always frustrating when you get guys on base and don't score," Simas said. "But we're coming around. We'll be OK."
Garcia, who fell to 0-2 on the year, allowed five hits and five runs in 4.1 innings. The Reed High graduate, though, didn't allow a hit in three of his innings.
"I had good innings when I was down in the zone and I got ahead of the hitters," said Garcia, who is now 2-7 in his two-year Pack career. "That's when I need to do to be successful, keep the ball down and get ahead of the hitters."
Conley drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to center in the seventh for a 6-3 lead.
The Pack cut the lead to 6-4 in the bottom of the seventh as Kevin Rodland scored on a ground ball to first by Kort. The Pack, though, got two runners on base with just one out in the eighth but failed to score.
"Some of our guys are trying too hard right now at the plate," Powers said. "They are being a little too aggressive because they want to win so bad. We just need to learn how to have controlled aggressiveness."
The Wolf Pack has now scored just 39 runs this season in 11 games.
"We're starting to get the barrel to the ball better," Powers said. "We're doing some of the little things better. I'm seeing improvement."
The Wolf Pack will play at UC Davis on Tuesday (2:30 p.m.) before opening a four-game series at Peccole Park against Oregon on Thursday.