The Nevada baseball team will play four road games in four days this weekend with a three-game series at Fresno State, today through Sunday, and a nonconference meeting with UC Santa Barbara on Monday.
The Wolf Pack (15-15, 6-4) and Bulldogs (21-13, 9-6) will meet in Mountain West play at Pete Beiden Field in Fresno, Calif. First pitch times are set for 6:05 p.m. PT on Friday and Saturday and 1:05 p.m. PT on Sunday.
Nevada then travels to Santa Barbara, Calif. to play the 19th-ranked Gauchos (21-7-1) on Monday. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. PT on Caesar Uyesaka Stadium. UCSB is ranked 19th in the latest USA Today Coaches’ Poll and is also ranked eighth in the NCAA RPI poll.
Don Marchand will call all four games on the Wolf Pack Radio Network, which is available on 1060 AM and online at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/nevada/. Live stats can also be found at NevadaWolfPack.com, while live video stream is unavailable.
The Pack trails in the series history with Fresno State, 91-58. Last season, Nevada posted a 4-2 record against the Broncos. This will also be the 27th all-time meeting between Nevada and UC Santa Barbara as the Pack trails the series history, 19-16. Nevada last met UCSB with a three-game series in 2012.
LEADING OFF
Since opening the season with a 5-11 record in its first 16 games, Nevada has since won 10 of its past 14 games to improve to .500 (15-15) on the season.
In its first four series of the season, Nevada went 0-3-1 with three series losses and one series split. The Wolf Pack has since won four consecutive three-game series with series wins against St. John’s, UNLV, San Diego State and Texas State.
UCSB is currently ranked 19th in the USA Today’s Coaches’ Poll. This will mark Nevada’s first time meeting a ranked opponent this season.
Nevada’s pitching staff is averaging just 2.282 walks allowed per nine innings, which leads the Mountain West and ranks 17th in the nation.
The Wolf Pack is the only team in the Mountain West ranking in the top three in the league in batting average, earned run average and fielding percentage. Nevada ranks first in the MW in fielding percentage (.978) and ranks third in both batting average (.285) and ERA (4.66).