Nevada hitters blanked

RENO " Gary Powers wants his Nevada Wolf Pack baseball team to shift into attack mode.

Right now.

"Take, take, take," Powers said after the Wolf Pack was blanked for the first time this season, 3-0, by the Oregon Ducks, Saturday at Peccole Park. "That's all we were doing up there at the plate. We were swinging at bad pitches and taking strikes."

The Wolf Pack, which fell to 5-10, is making history at the plate this season. The Pack, which has allowed 95 runs, has scored just 52 runs all season.

No Wolf Pack team in the 27-year Powers era has scored fewer runs in its first 15 games. You have to go back to the 1978 team, with 50 runs in its first 15 games, to find a Pack team that has struggled at the plate as much as this team to start the season.

"I don't know if we're pressing or trying to do too much," senior second baseman Matt Bowman said. "I just think we're just slumping as a team. We'll break out of it. We know we can swing the bats. We've seen flashes of it. We just haven't been consistent."

The flashes were there again on Saturday. The Wolf Pack had eight hits " two each by Bowman and Shaun Kort " but the end results was no runs and 10 runners left on base.

The Pack has now left 36 runners on base in the first three games of this four-game series.

"We had our chances again," Bowman said. "I had my chance. But we just didn't get any clutch hits."

Bowman doubled in the third and fifth innings, each time with two outs. Brett Hart and Westley Moss singled with two outs in the seventh. Nick Melino singled and Matt Langenfeld walked in the ninth with two outs.

"We're pitching well enough to win but we just haven't hit the ball consistently all season," Powers said.

Powers said the Pack's troubles at the plate stem from a lack of aggression.

"We're not going to break out of this if we don't get more aggressive up there," Powers said. "We were so tentative, it was disappointing. If you don't attack the baseball the same things will continue to happen."

Taking a lot of pitches was clearly the wrong approach against Oregon starter Bennett Whitmore.

The OU lefthander pounded the strike zone all day long and didn't walk a hitter in eight innings while fanning eight.

Whitmore, who allowed seven hits, came into the game with a 7.47 earned run average, having allowed 21 hits in 15.2 innings.

The junior, though, has shown great control all season and has now walked just three batters while striking out 26 in 23.2 innings.

"He was throwing a lot of strikes, mixing his pitches," Bowman said. "He was pretty aggressive in the strike zone."

"If you know the guy is throwing strikes, why don't you attack the baseball?" Powers said. "Go up there and attack the guy."

Oregon (8-7 in its first season of baseball in 28 years) got solo home runs from Caleb Tommasini on the first pitch of the game and Paul Eshleman in the seventh (his first hit of the year) off Pack starter Chris Garcia.

Garcia was also touched for back-to-back doubles by Eddy Rodriguez and Mitch Karraker in the fourth to suffer his third loss without a victory this year.

The Reed High graduate, though, allowed just seven hits in 7.2 innings.

"Chris came out and dealt and pitched a great game and we didn't back him up," Bowman said. "That's what is so disappointing."

The Wolf Pack and Ducks will close out the series today with a 1 p.m. game.