RENO - Gary Powers hopes his Nevada Wolf Pack baseball team learned a valuable lesson on Sunday.
"This is a young team," the Wolf Pack coach said after a 6-1 loss to the Utah Valley Wolverines at Peccole Park in front of 448 fans on a chilly afternoon. "We have to learn how to handle the adversity parts of this game as well as the success parts of this game."
The Wolf Pack, now 5-2, saw its four-game winning streak come to an end with the loss.
"We didn't come to the park today with the same type of focus and concentration that we have had all year," Powers said. "But that's our youth and inexperience. These kids have to learn that you have to have that focus and concentration every single day or this will happen."
The Wolf Pack had just four hits -- three of which never left the infield -- and scored just one run for the first time since a 7-1 loss at Fresno State last May 19.
"We were absolutely non-competitive with the bat today," Powers said.
The Wolf Pack didn't even get a base runner until Jay Anderson led off the fourth inning with a bunt single. Brett Jones, who had a pair of infield hits, also singled in the inning but the threat ended when Austin Byler flew out deep to center.
Jones led off the seventh inning with his second infield hit and then went to third when Carlos Escobar reached on a throwing error by Utah Valley starter Adam Gunn. Kewby Meyer drove in Jones with a single to cut Utah Valley's lead to 3-1 but Brooks Klein and Joe Kohan both popped up to end the inning with Escobar on third.
"We had guys going up there trying to pull the ball just to see how far they could hit it," Powers said. "And that's not the type of team we are. Our whole philosophy is to hit the ball hard up the middle or the other way. That's how this team needs to hit to be successful. But that's not what we were up there trying to do today."
Gunn allowed just four hits and an unearned run in seven inning in earning his first victory of the year. Utah Valley reliever Preston Olson then breezed through the Wolf Pack in the final two innings without allowing a base runner.
"Give their kid (Gunn) credit," Powers said. "He saw that we were trying to pull everything so he kept everything away. We just kept going up there and pulling off the ball and popping it up or hitting little ground balls."
Gunn, now 1-0, struck out five of the first seven Pack hitters but then relied on his defense the rest of the way to get out of trouble. In the fifth, left fielder Sean Moysh robbed Meyer of a single, catcher Alex Exon made a nice play on a bunt by Klein and right fielder Billy Burgess made an acrobatic catch on a drive off the bat of Kohan.
The Wolverines, now 2-5, gave Gunn a 2-0 lead in the fourth on a two-run homer by Jake Rickenbach with two out. Rickenbach, the Wolverines' leadoff hitter, was 1-for-9 with four strikeouts combined in the first two games of the series. The third baseman, though, doubled in the first off Jameson and his homer in the third gave the Wolverines their first lead of the three-game series after losing to the Pack on Friday (6-4) and Saturday (9-1).
"I got one ball up in the zone and he (Rickenbach) hit it," said Wolf Pack starter Tom Jameson of the home run to left field.
Jameson battled through his four innings, allowing six hits, three walks and those two runs. He threw 54 of his 91 pitches for strikes.
"It was just one of those days," Jameson said. "It wasn't too bad. I was trying to keep the ball down and once in a while it was a little too far down."
Jameson, who allowed seven hits, two walks and seven runs (four earned) in 4.1 innings in his first start of the season last week at New Mexico, said he saw improvement in his performance on Sunday.
"I definitely feel like I'm getting back to normal," he said. "My pitches weren't up in the zone most of the time like they were (at New Mexico)."
Jameson allowed at least two base runners in each inning. The 6-foot-7 right-hander, though, pitched out of trouble in the first three innings. He got Austin Heaps to bounce out to second to end the first inning with a runner on third. He also struck out Jordy Hart in the second with two runners on and Kai Hatch with the bases loaded in the third.
"He competed well but, again, he struggled with his release point," Powers said. "He just can't seem to find it. I wish I could help him with that but he has to find it himself. He just can't get a consistent release point. It's got to be frustrating for him. But he'll get it eventually."
The Wolf Pack will play at Santa Clara on Tuesday before opening a three-game series at UNLV starting on Friday. The Pack will return to Peccole Park on March 6 against San Francisco State.
