April 24, 2009

Box Score

Stockton, Calif. - The Pacific baseball team fell to Long Beach State by a final score of 5-1 on Friday, April 24.

With the loss the Tigers dropped to 16-20 on the season and 7-6 in the Big West Conference (BWC). Long Beach improved to 18-19 on the year and 5-5 in the BWC.

The winning pitcher for the Dirtbags was LHP Adam Wilk (6-1), while Charlie Ruiz earned his ninth save of the season. Senior LHP Joey Centanni (San Diego, Calif.) took the loss for the Tigers and fell to 3-4 on the year.

Despite a four-run second inning, Centanni did well on the mound in the complete game effort, tossing seven shutout innings. The southpaw tallied three strikeouts in the game, after throwing 110 pitches over nine innings.

Down 5-0 in the top of the ninth, Pacific tried to rally to come back into the game and avoid its first shutout since May 25, 2009. Sophomore J.B. Brown (Alvin, Texas) led off the ninth when he was hit by a pitch from Wilk. Two batters later and with a runner on first, sophomore Brian Martin (Livermore, Calif.) singled to right field to move Brown over to second. That was it for Wilk's night, as Pacific spoiled the possibility of his complete game.

Long Beach State then sent LHP David Born to the mound out of the 'pen and his first pitch to senior Kurt Wideman (Fallbrook, Calif.) was driven out to right flied to load the bases. The Tigers then finally broke their shutout spell over the first eight innings when junior Mike Walker (Marysville, Calif.) drew a five-pitch walk to bring in Brown and cut the deficit at 5-1.

But against the 49ers' closer, Charlie Ruiz, freshman Josh Simms (La Mesa, Calif.) grounded into a double play to close the book on the night.

Walker led the Tigers offensively, going 2-for-3 at the plate with Pacific's only RBI of the night.

Game two of the three game series continues on Saturday, April 25 with the first pitch set for 5:35 p.m.