RENO " The way Gary Powers looks at it, he's had absolutely nothing to do with the 800 victories attached to his name as the Nevada Wolf Pack's head baseball coach.
"I haven't thrown a pitch or gotten a hit,"said Powers Thursday afternoon at Peccole Park after a 6-5 victory over the Oregon Ducks. "I haven't contributed one ounce to any of those wins."
The victory over the Ducks in the opening game of this four-game series gave Powers his 800th career win in his 27-year career as Wolf Pack coach.
"Twenty-seven years?" smiled Wolf Pack pitcher Dan Tinlin, who earned his first Wolf Pack victory with 3.2 innings of relief. "That's a long time. I've only been a part of just five of them (wins). But it's just great to be a part of it."
The Wolf Pack, winners of three of their last four games, improved to 5-8 on the season. Oregon, playing baseball this season for the first time in 28 years, fell to 6-7.
"I don't even like to talk about 800 wins or anything like that," said Powers, whose career record stands at 800-629-4. "It's not about me. It's about the players who play between the white lines."
It's also about the dozens of players and all of the assistant coaches who have helped Powers during the last three decades.
"It's a program thing," Powers said. "I've been very fortunate to have had a lot of great players and a lot of great assistant coaches. My assistants work harder than I do."
The Wolf Pack definitely worked hard to earn victory No. 800. The Pack left 12 runners on base, committed two errors and hit five Oregon hitters.
"There are no easy games," Powers said. "To get a win against a good team like this says a lot, especially when you don't play that well. We had to overcome a lot of things."
The Wolf Pack scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth on a wild pitch and an Oregon error to pull out the historic victory. Westley Moss singled and later scored on a two-out wild pitch and Matt Bowman, who also singled in the inning, scored when a ground ball off the bat of Michael Turay bounced off Oregon third baseman John Adamson.
"I was happy to see some guys who haven't played here before come up and do things to help us win," said Powers, referring to newcomers like Moss, Turay, Tinlin, outfielder Nick Melino and pitcher Tyler Graham. "They are all making good strides and we're getting better everyday."
Melino doubled in two runs in the third inning to tie the game at 3-3. Graham gave the Wolf Pack four solid innings in relief of starter Stephen Bautista, allowing just three hits and one earned run.
"Tyler Graham did a real nice job," Powers said. "He stabilized the game and gave us a chance to win."
Tinlin, a South Tahoe graduate, was even more effective. The junior righthander allowed just two hits and no runs during the final 3.2 innings.
"I felt real good out there," Tinlin said. "I just tried to locate my fastball and curveball."
Tinlin got pinch-hitter Paul Eshelman to ground out to third baseman Tyson Jaquez with the tying run on third to end the game.
"At that point I just wanted to do my job, make my pitch," Tinlin said.
"It was a good win for us," Powers said. "The guys kept competing and kept playing hard. That's what this team has to do."