RENO -- It wasn't exactly like watching third ranked Cal-State Fullerton score eight runs in the ninth inning to tie the game, then win 10-9 in extra innings. Nah, it wasn't a gut-wrenching feeling like that. It was worse.
"In some individual's cases, their mentality in this game was worse than the man on the moon," said Nevada coach Gary Powers.
Down 8-7, University of Pacific scored 10 runs in the top of the ninth and swung through four different pitchers in the final inning in a 17-8 win in front of 873 fans on Tuesday at Peccole Park.
Nevada, which had won eight of 11 games and was coming off its first ever WAC road sweep over the weekend at Hawai'i, now must regroup. The Wolf Pack (12-14) hosts UC-Riverside in a three-game series starting Friday at Peccole.
But most coaches would like their team to put this kind of game behind them, a game in which the Wolf Pack fought back from a 7-2 deficit to take one-run lead. Not Powers. He wants his players to remember everything about it.
Remember how it felt to squander numerous chances early on that could've allowed Nevada to gain control of the game. Remember how nice it felt to battle back and take the lead. Remember how the Tigers yanked away that lead in an agonizing ninth inning, one that took over 30 minutes before the Wolf Pack got an out. Remember it all, Power says. So it doesn't happen again.
"Well, some guys out there better not put it out of their minds," Powers said. "Some guys got to grow up and get the job done. There's absolutely no excuse for the mentality of some of the guys in today's game."
The Wolf Pack (12-14) were unable to get back to .500 for the third time this season. They don't even know what it feels like to have a winning record this season. Still, that doesn't diminish where Pacific coach Quincey Noble rates the Tigers' win.
"Of all the games we've played, UCLA and everybody else, I still think Nevada is the best team we've played," said Noble, whose team improved to 18-10. "I think the reality was they played a three-game series against Hawaii and they were a little thin on the pitching end."
Nevada used seven pitchers, including freshman Chris Scott, who made his first start in a Wolf Pack uniform. It wasn't a glamorous one but it wasn't disastrous, either. He gave up two runs on two hits in three innings. Sophomore Bryan Johnson put Nevada in its biggest hole, allowing five runs in the next two innings as Pacific went up 7-2 in the sixth.
Pacific's Octavio Amezquita, who batted ninth, was a nuisance to every pitcher he faced. Batting just .255 coming into the game, Amezquita went 3-for-4 with four RBI and fell a triple short of hitting for the cycle and raised his batting average 28 points in the game. His effort helped the Tigers win a season series against Nevada for the first time since 1983, Powers' first season in Reno. The Tigers went 4-2 against the Wolf Pack this season after going 37-5 against them in Noble's first 13 seasons at Pacific.
"It was good for us," Nobles said. "Nevada has been kicking our a** for a long time."
The Tigers (18-10) left only four players on base while Nevada stranded nine. The highlights for the Wolf Pack were few but Brett Hayes' lead off single in the seventh extended his hitting streak to 13 games. Hayes' single in the eighth that scored Chris Gimenez gave him his team-leading 27th RBI while Tony Cappuccilli's lead off double in the inning gave him his team-leading eighth double.
With Nevada trailing 14-8 in the ninth with no outs and runners on first and second, Darrick Cummings, a 2000 Reno High graduate, made his Wolf Pack debut. Cummings, however, was able to do what three previous pitchers were unable to--get an out. He eventually got two more to end the rally but Pacific's Andy Willick, who earned the win, retired the side in the bottom of the ninth.
"It wasn't just in the ninth inning," Powers said. "There was things we could've done in the third (inning), fourth and fifth innings. We showed some character coming back in the eighth. (But) it became a circus after that."
