RENO - Brady Shipley felt right at home at Peccole Park.
"I love pitching at home," said Shipley after tossing six shutout innings as the Nevada Wolf Pack held off the Utah Valley Wolverines 6-4 on Friday afternoon in its home opener in front of 476 fans.
"It was a great environment out here today," Shipley added. "Great weather, great fan support. It was just a lot of fun. I felt real comfortable out on that mound."
Shipley, who is making the transition from starting shortstop a year ago to starting pitcher this season, dominated the Wolverines. The sophomore right-hander allowed just three hits and three walks while striking out nine to improve to 2-0 on the season.
"He did a great job," said coach Gary Powers, whose Wolf Pack are now 4-1 to start the year for the first time since 1997. "Anytime you get six shutout inning from your starter, that's an outstanding effort.
"It would have been a real tragedy to let this one slip away."
The Wolf Pack gave Shipley a 6-0 lead after seven innings but Utah Valley scored three runs in the eighth and had the tying run at the plate with two outs in the ninth. Wolf Pack closer Matt Gardner recovered from a shaky start to the ninth -- he walked the first hitter and hit the second and allowed a two-out run-scoring double -- to nail down the victory for his third save.
"Matt wasn't real happy with himself after this game," Powers said. "He's going to have days like that. But the good thing about Matt is that he's not happy with himself. He knows this wasn't his best."
Gardner fanned Utah Valley's Cole Butcher on a called third strike with Billy Burgess on second to end the game.
"He threw the right pitch when he needed to throw it," Powers said.
Shipley, it seems, has thrown all the right pitches ever since Powers named him the team's No. 1 starter to open the year. The 6-foot-2, 175-pounder has not allowed an earned run over his first two starts (11 innings) and has allowed just five hits while striking out 16.
"My changeup and curveball were working today real well," he said. "So that kept their hitters guessing about which breaking ball was coming next. But by the end of the game I felt like I could strike out any of their guys with any of my pitches."
Shipley retired the first seven Utah Valley hitters, five of them on strikeouts. He stuck out seven and allowed just one hit through four innings. In the fifth he got Cole McWhorter to bounce into an inning-ending double play with two runners on base and he got Goose Kallunki to fly out to left to end the sixth with two runners on base.
"I came into this game and told myself not to get complacent," said Shipley, who tossed five shutout innings in a 5-3 victory at New Mexico a week ago. "We knew this team could hit. I just wanted to come out with my best stuff and get the job done."
Shipley seems to be thriving in the Pack's No. 1 starter role on Fridays.
"To me, it's just another day at the ballpark," Shipley said. "It doesn't matter if it's Friday, Saturday or Sunday. You still have to come out and get hitters out."
Shipley tossed 96 pitches, 60 for strikes.
"He wanted to stay in there but, like I told him, it's early in the season," Powers said "There are a lot of games left. He did his job."
"I felt good," Shipley said. "I asked them to let me go back out there (for the seventh). But Coach Powers knows what's best for me."
A triple by Joe Kohan and a RBI single by Kyle Hunt gave Shipley and the Pack a 1-0 lead in the third inning. Kewby Meyer, Brooks Klein, Jay Anderson and Hunt all singled and scored in the fourth as the Pack stretched its lead to 5-0. Brett Jones singled and later scored on a single by Austin Byler for a 6-0 lead in the seventh.
"He (Utah Valley starter Jeremy Gendlek) was throwing everything away," said Jones who had two singles and a double and was robbed of another hit in the first inning on a nice catch by Wolverines' center fielder Jordy Hart. "I just tried to stay short (with his swing)."
The Pack pounded out 14 hits off Gendlek (six innings) and two relievers.
"It felt like everybody was clicking today at the plate," said Jones, who is now hitting .500 (10-for-20) on the year.
Powers was pleased with the victory but not with the performance of his bullpen. Bryan Suarez, Barry Timko and Gardner combined to allow five hits and four runs in 2.2 innings. Sean Prihar was the only Pack reliever to escape trouble as he fanned the only hitter he faced to end the eighth inning with a runner on first.
"Our bullpen didn't do a very good job at all," Powers said. "It was a mediocre to poor effort. I'm obviously not pleased with that and some of our hitters also didn't give us good at-bats in a few crucial situations."
The Wolf Pack and Wolverines will close out their three-game series at Peccole Park with single games on Saturday and Sunday (both 1 p.m. starts).
"This feels a lot better than last year," smiled Shipley, referring to the Pack's 0-9 start in 2011. "I really think this team is on the right path to where we want to be at the end of the year."
