By Brian Allen

Sports Writer

A brief two-game winning streak for Tech baseball ended as they were swept by Nevada in a three-game series on the road this past weekend in Western Athletic Conference play.

Tech (15-34, 6-17 WAC) was blanked by the score of 4-0 on Sunday. The games played Friday and Saturday were blowout losses for the Bulldogs by scores of 19-3 and 11-2, respectively.

Bulldog pitching gave up 34 runs on 44 hits to the high powered Wolf Pack offense in the three-game series. Nevada is number two in team batting average in the WAC with a .306 average.

Matt Lacy (1-9) was the most effective starting pitcher for Tech against the Nevada offense. Lacy threw six and 2/3 innings, recording six strikeouts in the series finale loss on Sunday, but his effort was not enough as the Bulldog hitters could muster only four hits for the game.

The game was locked up at zero after the first three innings with Tech having two hits and Nevada having only one.

Steven Winters (.305) started a one-out rally for Tech in the fourth inning with a single to right field. With two outs, Gil Laird (.301) roped a single through the right side of the infield to advance Winters to second base. Unfortunately, Jeremy Alford struck out to end the inning for the Bulldogs.

Nevada broke the scoreless tie in the bottom half of the fourth inning on RBI singles by Chris Gimenez and Baker Krukow to make the score 2-0 in favor of the Wolf Pack.

The Bulldog bats went cold in the final five innings, failing to record a hit. Nevada increased their lead to 4-0 in the seventh inning on three singles and would go on to hold their 4-0 lead over the Bulldogs the rest of the game.

Ryan Rodriguez (4-5) pitched a complete game shutout for Nevada, striking out ten Bulldog hitters.

Reliever Chris Herron pitched a solid one and 1/3 innings in relief for Tech, allowing no earned runs and two hits in the defeat.

Saturday's game was controlled by Nevada in both timely hitting and strong pitching. Tech outmatched Nevada in the hit column, but leaving nine runners on base proved to be costly in the Bulldog's loss.

Nevada's starting pitcher Adam Colton (4-1) threw a complete game, giving up one earned run and recording three strikeouts.

Clayton Meyer (4-6) took the hill first for Tech on Saturday against the aggressive Wolf Pack offense. Meyer only lasted four and 1/3 innings, giving up 10 earned runs on nine hits in the effort.

Tech and Nevada both went scoreless in the first two innings with neither team able to generate any offense.

The Wolf Pack drew first blood in the third inning when Chris Gimenez delivered a three-run double to left center to make the score 3-0 after three innings.

Nevada added three runs in the fourth inning and four runs in fifth inning to increase their lead to 10-0.

Jeff Walker (.350) led off the sixth inning for Tech with a double to left center and would come around to score the Bulldog's first run on a RBI by Will Wade.

Tech and Nevada scored one run each for the remaining three innings of the game, making the final score 11-2.

Friday's series opener was ugly for the Bulldog pitching staff. Tech sent four pitchers to mound and gave up a combined 17 earned runs to the Nevada offense.

Tech's starting pitcher Mitch Tucker (3-5) lasted only one and 1/3 innings, giving up seven runs on seven hits.

Nevada scored 13 runs on 14 hits in the first three innings to deplete the Bulldog chances for a victory.

Walker showed his aggressiveness at the plate for Tech in the fourth inning when he crushed a solo home run to left field to make the score 13-1 in favor of the Wolf Pack.

Nevada plated six more combined runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to make the score 19-1.

In the top of the eighth inning, Brandon Haygood doubled to left center to set up Steve Soper's two-run home run to left field.

The score after eight innings was 19-3 in favor of Nevada, and that would turn out to be the final score for the game as the Wolf Pack completed the sweep.