WAC notebook: Pack baseball players solid in summer and Olympians

BY DARRELL MOODY

Appeal Sports Writer

Brock Stassi made his presence felt on the mound at Nevada during his freshman season, compiling a 4-2 record.

Stassi played for the hometown Yuba-Sutter Gold Sox over the summer and was a first-team selection in the Horizon Air Summer Baseball Series.

The Gold Sox went 30-10 in division play and 35-11 overall. The team finished a half game behind the Seattle Studs.

Stassi made his presence felt at the plate, hitting .359 with a homer and 25 RBI. He finished with 55 hits and 29 runs scored.

Several other Wolf Pack players played during the summer months.

Matt Bowman and Shaun Kort played for the Orleans Cardinals in the prestigious Cape Cod League. Orleans won a division title, but was knocked out in the first round of the playoffs in the wood bat league.

Bowman led the team in hitting with a .277 average and played the bulk of the time at second base, which is his natural position. Kort struggled offensively, hitting just .187. He finished with three homers and nine RBI.

Catcher Tyson Jaquez and shortstop Kevin Rodland played for the Mat-Su Miners in the Alaska Baseball League.

In 14 games, Jaquez hit .261 with a homer and 10 RBI, while Rodland, who played 31 games, hit .178 with a homer, five RBI and 15 runs scored.

Bryan Suarez, who saw limited pitching action last year, threw for the Santa Barbara Foresters, who won the National Baseball Congress championship. Suarez had three great relief performances in July, but didn't see action during the World Series.

NETTERS MAKE THE GRADE

The Nevada tennis team, coached by Carson High grad Chad Stoloff, was honored by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association for outstanding work in the classroom.

Guerin Smith, Antonue Bulich, Gabe Kanzelmeyer, Laurent Garcin and Kristian Kuharszky all were given the Scholar-Athlete Award. The award is given to student-athletes who hold a 3.5 GPA.

SKELLY HIRED AS ASSISTANT

Eric Skelly has been hired as an assistant coach for the University of Nevada swimming and diving squad.

Skelly comes to Nevada from Valparaiso where he worked as an assistant.

Skelly, a former All-American, will coach the distance swimmers and coordinate recruiting as well as NCAA compliance.

"We are incredibly fortunate for Eric to join our staff," said Nevada head coach Mike Richmond. "His work ethic, dedication and passion he will bring is a great asset. We are in a position to take the program to the next level."

THE OLYMPIC IMPACT

The Western Athletic Conference contributed 24 past and current participants to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Three of the participants had Nevada ties, all with the softball program, and all were on the Netherlands squad.

Judith van Kampen pitched the first two years of the Michelle Gardner era, compiling a 14-15 record. Netherlands failed to make it into the medal rounds. Liz Kelly and Linda Wells, both of whom assisted in the Nevada program, were head coach and assistant coach for Netherlands this year.

Hawaii had the most Olympic participants, 10, in this year's Olympics.

Robyn Ah Mow-Santos, Heather Brown and Kim Willoughby are playing for the women's volleyball program. Clay Stanley, a men's volleyball player, is playing for the men's team. Natasha Kai is playing for the USA women's soccer team, while softball stars Stacey Porter and Justine Smethurst are playing for Australia. Meike de Nooy and Iefke van Belkum are playing on the Netherlands' women's water polo team while Melanie Schlanger is swimming for the Australian squad.

Softball player Vicky Galindo is from San Jose State and Taylor Takata, another Spartan, is participating in judo.

Fresno State has three softball players in action. Laura Berg and Lovie Jung are playing for the USA softball squad, while former pitcher Robin Mackin is playing for Canada.

Idaho is represented by Joachim Olsen, who placed 11th in the shot put for Denmark's track and field squad; Angela Whyte, who is running the 100-meter hurdles for Canada; and cyclist Kristin Armstrong, who won the women's time trial gold for Team USA.

Louisiana Tech's Cristine Sant'Anna represented Georgia in women's beach volleyball and Olivia McCoy threw the javelin for Jamaica.