Carson City’s White to ump Reno Aces series

Carson City’s Nate White makes his first professional umpiring appearance in Reno April 21-24 at Aces Ballpark.

White was just promoted to Triple A this year. Originally, he was assigned to the International League, but was transferred to the Pacific Coast League before the season started. White umpired third base on Thursday in the Sacramento River Cats’ opening game.

He will move on to the Pacific Northwest before coming down to Reno. Right now he’s scheduled to work the third game (April 23) behind the plate.

White is scheduled to work in Reno three times this season.

White said the Sacramento fans seemed excited to be a Giants affiliation.

Another area product, Clint Vondrak has moved up to the Double A Southern League.

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The best hire in recent Nevada history has been baseball coach Jay Johnson, who has the Wolf Pack ranked in the top 30 in his second season at the helm.

I think long term Johnson could surpass what Mark Fox accomplished in his short tenure at Nevada. Hopefully Johnson will stay long enough to make several NCAA appearances.

Fox took the Wolf Pack basketball squad to four straight NCAA tournaments before departing for greener pastures at Georgia.

Johnson, who came to Nevada from the University of San Diego, has guided Nevada to a 26-7 record, including 12-3 in conference thus far. His team is 17-2 at home.

The Pack entered the weekend tied with San Diego State for the Mountain West lead.

There are still 20 regular-season games left in the season plus the conference tournament at Peccole Park, and if Nevada can somehow get to 40 wins, the team is going to make the NCAA Tournament.

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Kudos to Jennifer Purcell, who hit her first college homer earlier this week against San Diego State in a 9-7 loss.

Purcell started the year at first base, lost her job to Amanda Weis, but is starting to get back on the field often. She is at over .300 for the season.

Nice to see a local softball player make good with the local team.

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In case you missed our alumni report earlier this week, Kenzie Cole of Dayton was named the Big Sky Pitcher of the Week after picking up two wins for the Grizzlies, win their first year of existence.

Cole transferred to Montana after three years at Boise State.

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Oregon has a Northern Nevada connection within its baseball program.

Former WNC pitcher Conor Harber is 3-1 with a 4.08 ERA in 37 innings pitched.

Also part of the program is assistant coach Jay Uhlman, who assisted Gary Powers at Nevada for many years.