Nevada's Tyler Bosetti goes to bat against Texas in Austin, Texas, on April 13. (AP Photo/Stephen Spillman, File)
One of the greatest individual accomplishments in the history of the Nevada Wolf Pack is still going strong and, well, hardly anyone has been there to see it because of COVID-19 crowd restrictions.
Wolf Pack third baseman Tyler Bosetti hit a home run on Tuesday at Peccole Park against the Arizona State Sun Devils, setting a NCAA Division I record for home runs in nine consecutive games. You could argue that it is the greatest accomplishment in Wolf Pack sports history for an individual player considering it is a NCAA Division I record.
Chase Larsson of Cameron holds the Division II record with a homer also in nine consecutive games but nobody has ever done nine in a row it in Division I or even at the major league level. Ken Griffey Jr. (1993), Don Mattingly (1987) and Dale Long (1956) own the big league record at eight games in a row.
Bosetti will try to make it 10 games in a row when the Pack plays at Fresno State on Saturday. The Wolf Pack, 8-1 during Bosetti’s streak, is now 18-17 overall and 15-9 in the Mountain West, just percentage points behind San Diego State (17-10) in the race for the conference regular season title.
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Bosetti’s power surge is even more remarkable when you consider that he had hit just six home runs over 392 at bats in his Wolf Pack career before his current streak. He is just 6-foot, 180 pounds and had just one homer over his last 163 Wolf Pack at bats dating back to the final weeks of the 2019 season before his streak began.
Bosetti, whose uncle Rick hit 17 home runs over seven major league seasons (1976-82) with Philadelphia, St. Louis, Toronto and Oakland, has 10 homers in his nine-game streak and is hitting .342 this year with 11 home runs and 37 RBI this season.
His 10 home runs during his record-breaking streak have come over just 43 at bats, starting with a home run in the second game of a double header at Air Force on April 24.
Bosetti signed with the Pack as a 160-pound middle infielder out of Vacaville (Calif.) High School, the same school that produced Wolf Pack kicker Brandon Talton (quarterback Carson Strong went to Wood High in Vacaville) and has been with the Pack since the 2018 season.
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Is Bosetti’s streak the great accomplishment by an individual Pack athlete in school history? It is certainly in the conversation. A handful of individual Pack performances come quickly to mind.
Wolf Pack running back Stefphon Jefferson equaled a NCAA record with seven touchdowns in a game against Hawaii in 2012. Trevor Insley set NCAA records for career catches (298) and receiving yards (5,055) as well as receiving yards in a season (2,060 in 1999). Alex Van Dyke led the nation in catches and receiving yards for two seasons in the mid -1990s. Otis Burrell, arguably the greatest athlete in school history, led the nation’s high jumpers in the 1960s, surpassing seven feet numerous times. Frank Hawkins had 100 or more yards in a NCAA-record 21 games in a row. Colin Kaepernick became the first quarterback in Division I history to surpass 10,000 passing yards and 4,000 rushing yards in a career. Pete Padgett was among the nation’s leading rebounders in the early 1970s.
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It took four seasons but Cam Oliver finally made it to a NBA regular season game. The former (2015-17) Wolf Pack power forward made his NBA debut this past week with the Houston Rockets, scoring 13 and 17 points in two games against the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers.
Oliver scored those 30 points in just 41 combined minutes, converting 13-of-20 shots. The 6-8 Oliver was one of the most gifted Pack players in history, averaging 14.7 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.6 blocks a game for two seasons. He spent the past four years playing in the NBA G-League as well as in Israel and Australia.
He left the Wolf Pack as a sophomore after the 2016-17 season but wasn’t selected in the NBA draft. Oliver’s appearance on the court this week gave the Rockets a NBA-record 29 players to see time on the court this season.
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The Las Vegas Raiders will start the 2021 season with four difficult games, taking on Baltimore and Miami in Las Vegas and Pittsburgh and the Los Angeles Chargers on the road. The schedule doesn’t get much easier after that as the Raiders will have to take on Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Cleveland, Washington and Indianapolis as part of their non-division schedule. Looks like Nevada’s NFL team might struggle to duplicate last year’s eight wins despite playing one more game (17) this year.
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The San Francisco 49ers, though, might reach double figures in wins after going just 6-10 a year ago. The 49ers’ non-division schedule includes Detroit, Chicago, Jacksonville, Minnesota, Cincinnati and Atlanta, six teams that will all likely struggle to make the playoffs. The 49ers also take on Green Bay and Houston, two teams with fragile quarterback situations right now.
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The most anticipated NFL game of the 2021 regular season, of course, will take place Oct. 3 when Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski’s Tampa Bay Bucs go to New England to take on the Patriots.
Watching Brady and Gronkowski wearing a visiting team’s uniform on New England soil might be difficult for Boston-area fans. Red Sox fans, after all, never had to see Ted Williams or Carl Yastrzemski play for another team at Fenway Park. Celtics’ fans didn’t have to suffer through watching Bill Russell, John Havlicek or Larry Bird play for another team at the Boston Garden. Former Bruin great Bobby Orr never played a game in Boston for the Chicago Blackhawks at the end of his career.
Watching a former Boston star wearing a different uniform in New England, though, won’t be a new experience for Boston fans. Former Red Sox greats Babe Ruth, Carlton Fisk and Roger Clemens did it quite often.
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The sad story of former University of Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan came to an end this week. The 37-year-old Brennan died after ingesting fentanyl, according to his father Terry.
Brennan, whose uncle Brent is the head coach at San Jose State, was one of the greatest quarterbacks in NCAA history. Brennan, who suffered near-fatal brain injuries in a 2010 car accident and battled legal and substance abuse issues since, passed for 5,549 yards and 58 touchdowns in 2006.
He played two incredible games against the Wolf Pack, passing for 409 yards and three touchdowns against the Pack in 2005 and 419 yards and four scores in 2006.
Current Wolf Pack assistant coach Timmy Chang and Brennan helped revolutionize passing offenses in college football under head coach June Jones. Chang played for Jones from 2000-04 and Brennan was at Hawaii from 2005-07.
