The numbers tell the story.

Nevada baseball has played in 18 conference tournaments and claimed zero titles.

Despite generally boasting high-level teams, the Wolf Pack lost three Big West tournaments, seven WAC tournaments and eight Mountain West tournaments.

Overall, it is 25-36 in those postseason games, reaching the tournament title game just three times, including twice in the WAC where it lost to Fresno State in 2007 and 2008 and to New Mexico in the MW in 2016.

As a No. 1 seed, which the Wolf Pack will carry into this year’s tournament, the team is 0-4 in conference tournaments.

“I actually saw that stat of us being 0-for-18 in conference tournaments,” Nevada head coach Jake McKinley said before his team departed for Mesa, Ariz., for this week’s tournament at Sloan Park. “That’s actually remarkable.”

For a program that has had a solid pipeline to the big leagues — 25 major-leaguers and counting — and has won seven regular-season titles and reached five NCAA Regionals since 1994, it seems almost impossible the Wolf Pack has failed to win a conference tournament in its history. This year’s team is out to snap that streak and break that curse.

“I think we’re playing pretty well,” catcher Jake Harvey said. “I think we’re going to heat up, especially in Arizona. It’s going to be awesome. I think we just need to keep playing our game, keep relying on each other and we’re going to be just fine.”

The Wolf Pack is surging into the postseason having won nine of its last 11 conference games, including a sweep of No. 2 seed Fresno State, to win the MW regular-season title by a game over those Bulldogs.

“I think we have a good body of confidence just because I think we’ve won a lot of games in different ways,” McKinley said.

This week will mark Nevada’s first MW Tournament under McKinley, who is in his third season with the Wolf Pack. Nevada lost out on a three-way tiebreaker to make last year’s event with the Pack players saying there’s less pressure this year knowing they’re in the tournament. But there’s no doubt Nevada will face its most pressurized situation of the season this week knowing only the MW Tournament winner will make the NCAA Tournament. With no team in the league possessing an at-large résumé and parity reigning up and down the standings, who gets the conference’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament should be decided by the thinnest of margins.

“Pressure is just a reality of it,” Nevada pitcher Dominic Desch said. “It means we’re playing for something special. It’s an opportunity. It’s something to be grateful for. Something that Jake’s been pushing hard is trying to ignore the pressure is not realistic. It’s gonna be there. It’s more leaning into it. But while we’re leaning into it, what can we do today to really prepare ourselves for that by taking it one step at a time? We’re in a great position to be able to play for something special, and with that comes the pressure. So, instead of thinking, ‘Oh, crap, there’s going to be pressure.’ Instead it’s, ‘Thank God there’s going to be pressure.’ It means we’ve earned something.”

Nevada’s lineup has repeatedly put pressure on opposing pitching staffs this season. The Wolf Pack put four position players on the All-MW first or second team, including conference freshman of the year Sean Yamaguchi, who tied the MW record for homers by a rookie in league games. The Wolf Pack’s 7.56 runs per MW game were the third most in the league.

“They don’t have a batter off,” Harvey said of opposing staffs. “One through nine, no batters off. Even some of our pinch hitters have a lot of pop. No matter who’s in the box for us, we’re going to be in a good spot.”

Meanwhile, Nevada’s pitching staff has rounded into form, posting the third-best ERA in league games at 5.63. While the Wolf Pack doesn’t possess a true ace, it has four capable starting pitchers, that depth being key in a double-elimination tournament setting where games come rapid fire.

This year’s event increased from four to six teams with the top-two seeds getting a first-round bye, which will benefit Nevada. The tournament also will be held at a neutral site at Sloan Park, the spring training home of the Chicago Cubs. McKinley said the Wolf Pack will treat each outing as the tournament’s championship game rather than trying to hold pitchers in reserve. The Wolf Pack knows it needs to play its best baseball to emerge from the conference tournament as champions. And McKinley still doesn’t think his team has peaked despite its strong recent form.

“At no point have I felt like this team’s been hot,” McKinley said. “We’ve had hot little spurts, but I don’t think we’ve had a stretch where I’m, like, ‘Dang, we’re kind of on fire’ because we’ve sprinkled in a loss here and there. But I do think we have gotten to another level, and I think some of that comes with maturity and just experience.”

Nevada opens its MW Tournament on Thursday against the winner of the UNLV-San Diego State play-in game. That means the Rebels and Aztecs will both burn their top starter before one faces the Wolf Pack. But McKinley said each team has more than capable No. 2 starters in UNLV’s LJ Mercurius and SDSU’s Omar Serrano.

“UNLV’s guy shut us out,” McKinley said of Mercurius. “San Diego State’s guy is one of the most complete pitchers in the conference. You’re gonna have to beat a really good arm. We think we stack up well. We think offensively we can hold our weight with anybody. And if we get good starting pitching, I think we can hold our weight with anybody there, too. It just comes down to our ability to execute, but the league’s good. It’s anybody’s tournament.”

While Nevada already celebrated one MW championship this season, doing so after clinching the regular-season title last Friday at San Jose State, the Wolf Pack said a celebration this week would be even more meaningful given an NCAA Tournament berth is attached.

“That would be incredible,” Desch said of winning the tournament title. “I have no doubt we have the ability to do it. I think we’ve proved that throughout the season. We have a great group of guys, and just getting to this point, really anything can happen. I think that would prove not to ourselves — I think we already believe it — but prove to everyone else that we’re a great group of guys and we’ve got a great team.”

Added Harvey: “I think it would be a little more special, especially because we’d get to go to a Regional and play on national television and prove to the nation what we can really do.”

Sports columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter @ByChrisMurray.