April 21, 2009
Box Score
Reno, Nev. - Despite an early 6-0 lead, the Pacific baseball team was able to use yet another signature late-inning rally to reclaim the lead when the Tigers defeated Nevada 10-7 on Tuesday, April 21.
With the win, the Tigers improve to 16-19 on the year while Nevada fell to 18-20 on the 2009 season. Pacific has now won four of its last five games, all coming in road contests.
Senior RHP Larry Holscher (McArtuhr, Calif.) nabbed the victory in relief for the Tigers and improved to 3-2 on the seaosn. Jesse Rasner suffered the loss for Nevada, falling to 0-1 on the year.
Down 7-6 after a wild fifth on defense, the Tigers would not go down without a fight as they came crawling back in the sixth inning. Sophomore Nick Longmire (San Diego, Calif.) led off his second inning with a quick single, this time to third base. Senior Joey Centanni (San Diego, Calif.) followed that up with a single of his own to left field that moved Longmire to second. Threatening to reclaim the lead, sophomore J.B. Brown (Alvin, Texas) chopped a ball that ended up as if it were a sacrifice bunt, moving both runners into scoring position while Brown was thrown out at first.
With one out, senior Mike McKeever (San Diego, Calif.) drew his second walk of the evening to put Tigers on every base. Nevada was then forced to again call on its bullpen with runners on and only one out. Sophomore Brian Martin (Livermore, Calif.) came in to serve as the hero in the top of the sixth when his single to left center brought home both Longmire and Centanni and put Pacific back in the lead, 8-7. One batter later, a double play quickly squelched the possibility of adding more runs to the Tigers' lead.
The Tigers finally had the chance to add on to their lead in the top of the seventh when junior Mike Walker (Marysville, Calif.) drew yet another walk to start things off. Pacific had to settle with a fielder's choice off the bat of freshman Josh Simms' (La Mesa, Calif.) bat, as Simms switched places with Walker on first for the first out of the inning. During a possible hit and run attempt of junior Ben Gorang's (Turlock, Calif.) at-bat, Simms stole second base for the first swipe of his career and moved into scoring position. Gorang notched a big single into the outfield that put runners at the corners with only one out. Longmire came through with a sacrifice fly to score Simms, 9-7, and move Gorang to second on the relay throw home. Centanni wrapped up the seventh inning scoring when he doubled into center field and scored Gorang for a 10-7 lead with two outs.
Senior Cole Akins (Seattle, Wash.) came in for the final four innings of relief and shut the door on Nevada. The senior helped preserve a 10-7 lead and gave up only two hits and no runs for his second save on the season.
Pacific scored early in the game as Longmire started off the third inning by driving a 3-1 pitch through to left side of the diamond for a single to start out the inning. Trying to put Longmire in scoring position during Centanni's at-bat, catcher Michael Turay caught Longmire stealing at second. However, Centanni kept the same pace alive as during Longmire's at-bat and singled to left center for Pacific's second hit of the inning and one down.
Brown made quick work of his base runner, launching a shot over the right field wall for his sixth home run of the season. That drove in Centanni to bring the score up 2-0 with only one out. Following Brown's trip around the bases, McKeever drew a four-pitch walk to put yet another batter on in the one-out rally. Like McKeever, Martin's patience at the plate paid off, when he drew a full-count walk to put runners on first and third.
That forced Nevada to go to its bullpen, calling upon Beau Witsoe to face senior Kurt Wideman (Fallbrook, Calif.). However, the Wolf Pack command fell to pieces, as Witsoe walked the third-consecutive batter to load the bases for Walker. Walker saw the same result as the three hitters before him and earned a free pass to first that brought in McKeever as Pacific took a 3-0 lead.
With the bases still loaded, Simms took advantage of a fielding error by right fielder Brett Hart, that would have been a sacrifice fly, scoring Martin to put the Tigers up 4-0 as Simms earned the RBI. The bases were still loaded for the third-straight batter, and junior Gorang wasted no time bringing another run home when he smacked single down the left field line to score Wideman. That kept pace for Longmire who started off the inning, to come in as the 10th batter to the plate.
Longmire grounded into a fielder's choice for a force out that eliminated Walker at home to keep runners at every bag, but resulted in two outs on the board. In the next at-bat, a wild pitch allowed Simms to come around and score the sixth and final run of the inning to give the Tigers a 6-0 lead.
However, the six run lead was not enough, as Nevada plated two in the fourth and then exploded for five in the fifth inning against the Tiger bullpen on the first home run of the year for Turay that brought in the final three runs of the inning to put Nevada ahead 7-6 in the bottom of the fifth.
After playing the last five games on the road, the Tigers return home for more Big West Conference action when they host Long Beach State for a three-game series beginning Friday, April 24. First pitch on Friday is slated for 5:35 p.m.
