The Nevada Wolf Pack baseball team came up empty in its first visit to Eugene, Ore.
The Oregon Ducks treated the Wolf Pack rather rudely this weekend, completing a four-game series sweep at PK Park with a 5-0 victory on Sunday in front of 1,641 fans.
The Pack, now 10-10, has lost seven of its last 10 games. Oregon, in just its second season of baseball after dropping the sport after the 1981 season, has won 11 of its last 12 games and is now 16-6.
The trip to Eugene, Ore.was the first for the Pack in the program's history. The Wolf Pack and Ducks had played each other seven times with all seven games taking place in Reno. The Pack swept a three-game series in 1980 at Moana Stadium in Reno and split four games last year at Peccole Park. Oregon now leads the all-time series, 6-5.
Oregon, which outscored the Pack 38-9 this weekend, took a 2-0 lead in the first inning with a pair of unearned runs. Wolf Pack third baseman Nick Leid committed two errors on the first two hitters of the game. The Ducks took their 2-0 lead off Pack starter Chris Garcia on a two-run single by Eddie Rodriguez.
Garcia, who had not pitched in two weeks because of a sore arm, lasted just one inning. The Reed High graduate allowed a hit, walk and hit a batter while throwing 25 pitches. The lefthander suffered the loss to fall to 1-1 on the year.
Jeremy Cole relieved Garcia and turned in five sharp innings. Cole, one of the bright spots over the Pack's first 20 games, allowed just three hits and a run in five innings.
The Ducks put the game away with two runs off Pack reliever Tom Jameson in the eighth. Rodriguez reached on an error by second baseman Cullen Mahoney and scored on a double by Curtis Raulinaitis.
Three of the Ducks five runs were unearned thanks to three Pack errors.
The Wolf Pack, which left eight runners on base, had just four hits (two by Westley Moss) are came close to scoring just once.
Shaun Kort started the fourth inning with a walk off Oregon starter Alex Keudell and went to third on a one-out double by Ronnie Mitchell. Leid, though, flew out to center and Kort was thrown out at the plate trying to score on the fly ball.
Keudell, now 4-1, earned the victory for the Ducks, allowing just four hits and no runs in seven innings while striking out a career-high nine hitters. The Wolf Pack struck out 12 times against three Oregon pitchers.
The shutout is the first suffered by the Wolf Pack since a 1-0 loss at UC Irvine on March 20, 2009. The Pack was also blanked by these same Ducks on March 14, 2009 (3-0) at Peccole Park.
The sweep is the first time the Pack has been swept in a four-game series since May 15-17, 2009 at San Jose State.
The Wolf Pack will open an eight-game homestand at Peccole Park on Friday against Irvine. Irvine will be in Reno for three games (Friday-Sunday) followed by UNLV (March 30), Seattle (April 1-3) and UC Davis (April 5). The Pack will also play the Triple-A Reno Aces in an exhibition game on April 6 at Aces Ballpark.