WOLF PACK BASEBALL NOTEBOOK: Murdock to play in Aces-Pack exhibition game

Britton Murdock can't wait for next Tuesday.

"I'm excited," the Nevada Wolf Pack softball player said.

Murdock will join the Wolf Pack baseball team for a day next Tuesday when the Pack takes on the Reno Aces in an exhibition baseball game at 6:05 p.m. at Aces Ballpark.

"The game will be a great experience and it's something I'll remember forever," said Murdock, a Reno High graduate.

The Aces, the Triple-A affiliate of major league baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks, beat the Wolf Pack 11-1 in an exhibition last April. The Aces' pitchers and catchers will play for both teams on Tuesday in the wood-bat game that will last at least seven innings.

Murdock is hoping to become the second Pack softball player to take part in the annual charity event (the Aces donated $15,000 to the Wolf Pack Dugout Club after last year's game). Wolf Pack softball player Sam Bias played two innings in left field last year for the Pack baseball team against the Aces.

Murdock, a senior, is hitting .364 this year with two home runs and 15 RBI for the Pack softball team in 29 games. She hit .310 with eight homers and 38 RBI as a freshman in 2008, .344 with eight homers and 40 RBI as a sophomore in 2009 and .283 with seven homers, 34 RBI as a junior last year.

MELINO STILL MASHING: Wolf Pack outfielder Nick Melino is solidifying himself as one of the top hitters in Wolf Pack history.

Melino is 11-for-19 (.579) over his last five games to raise his average this season to .373. After the first nine games, the Las Vegas-area high school product was hitting just .206 (7-for-34). He also had struck out six times in his first 23 at-bats.

Since then, however, the switch-hitter is one of the hottest hitters in the country. He has gone 21-for-41 for a .512 average and has struck out just four times over his last 52 at-bats. He has seven multiple-hit games over his last 11 games after not getting more than one hit in any one of his first nine games.

Melino is currently fifth in Wolf Pack history for career batting average at .370.

PACK LOOKING TO START WINNING: The Wolf Pack, losers of six of their last seven games, are 5-15 this season. The Pack, though, will open an eight-game home stand starting Friday night (6 p.m.) against two teams (Utah Valley and UC Davis) they haven't had much trouble with in the Gary Powers era.

Powers' Wolf Pack have gone 42-14 against Utah Valley and Davis combined since Powers took over as head coach in 1983.

The Pack will play three games against Utah Valley this weekend and one against Davis on Monday at Peccole Park. The Pack will also play Seattle for three games April 8-10 and San Francisco State for one on April 12 to complete the home stand next week.

Utah Valley is 6-14 this season while Davis is 4-14. The Pack went 6-0 against Seattle last season.

PACK HOPING FOR FAST START: A big reason for the Wolf Pack's 5-15 start to this season has been their inability to get off to a fast start in most games.

The Wolf Pack has been outscored 31-3 in the first inning this season and 58-18 over the first three innings.

A big reason for their slow start in games can be attributed to their lack of production against the opposing starting pitcher. Opposing starting pitchers are 13-3 against the Pack this year with a 3.05 earned run average.

Opposing starting pitchers have tossed some gems against the Pack this year already.

UNLV's Tanner Peters and Tyler Iodence combined to allow no runs in 15.1 innings in two starts in early March against the Pack. UC Santa Barbara's Matthew Vedo tossed a complete-game one-hitter against Nevada in the middle of March and California's Kevin Miller allowed the Pack no runs in seven innings just two days after Vedo's effort.

Opposing starting pitchers have fanned 94 Pack hitters in 126.2 innings and have allowed just 121 hits with 39 walks.

POWER SHORTAGE: Wolf Pack games have definitely seen a power outage this season.

There has been just one home run -- by Nevada's Carlos Escobar on Saturday against Washington -- hit over the Pack's last nine games by either team.

The last home run Wolf Pack pitchers have allowed came 10 games ago by Pacific's Brian Martin off Pack pitcher Jayson McClaren in the fifth inning of a 10-6 Nevada victory on March 11.

Pack pitchers, despite a 5.83 ERA, have allowed just four home runs all year (Pack hitters have eight).

No Pack pitcher has allowed more than one homer this year and just one of the four opponent homers have come off a Pack starting pitcher (by Tom Jameson on March 5 against UNLV).

CIRCLING THE BASES: First baseman Hugo Hernandez was 5-for-10 in three games at Washington last weekend . . . Relief pitcher Matt Gardner has not allowed an earned run all season over eight appearances and 8.2 innings . . . Gardner has allowed just one hit over his last six innings with seven strikeouts . . . Brock Stassi, who made his pitching debut last weekend at Washington (2.1 innings, five hits, two runs), has a .435 on base percentage . . . Stassi is expected to make his second pitching start this weekend against Utah Valley . . . Stassi has hit safely in five games in a row and in seven of his last nine games to raise his average from .192 to .262 . . . Garrett Yrigoyen had two hits on Sunday to break an 0-for-18 streak . . . Carlos Escobar has a five-game hitting streak (5-for-15).