April 21, 2006 

RENO, Nevada - Utah Valley State senior Kam Mickolio pitched a four-hit shutout as the Wolverines (13-27) beat Nevada (15-20) 5-0 Friday night in Reno in the opener of a three-game series.

Mickolio struck out five batters while two of the four hits he allowed were infield hits. The shutout over Nevada at Peccole Park was the first shutout by a single pitcher in the history of the park. 

"That was just a super effort by Kam," said Wolverine head coach Steve Gardner. "He worked ahead in the count and that was the key for him. He just did a great job. The guys did a great job all the way around...the defense was super."

The shutout is the second of his career and second this season after beating Sacramento State 8-0 on March 17th.

"I felt really comfortable," said Mickolio, who moved to 4-5 with the win. "I had everything working for me and we had great defense behind me."

Utah Valley State jumped out in front 1-0 in the top of the first after back-to-back doubles by Nick Connor and Eli Slesk.

The score stayed that way until the top of the seventh when Connor drove in Kade Boyer on an RBI single. Chris Benson then singled home Connor to give Utah Valley a 3-0 advantage.

The Wolverines added two more insurance runs in the eighth after Adam Openshaw doubled to lead off the inning and score on an RBI single by Cory Newton. Brad Hales doubled home Newton later in the inning to cap the scoring for UV.

Mickolio ran into trouble in the eighth when the Wolfpack had runners on first and third with two outs but Boyer made a nice running grab in rightfield on a fly ball off the bat of Durrell Williams to get out of the inning unscathed.

Utah Valley State racked up 16 total hits on the day with Connor and Newton leading the way with three hits apiece. Hales, Slesk and Openshaw also had multiple hit games with two hits each.

The two teams will meet again tomorrow at 1pm PST with Kalen Parsons the scheduled starter for the Wolverines.