April 9, 2009
Box Score
Stockton, Calif. - Despite scoring seven runs, the Pacific baseball team couldn't hold on to No. 16 Cal Poly, falling 12-7 on Thursday, April 9.
With the loss, Pacific dropped to 11-17 on the year and 4-3 in the Big West Conference, while the Mustangs improved to 23-7 and 4-3.
The Tigers started out the bottom of the first running out of the gate, when sophomore Nick Longmire (San Diego, Calif.) doubled in the first at-bat of the day for Pacific. Senior Joey Centanni (San Diego, Calif.) executed a perfect sacrifice bunt down the first base line to move Longmire even closer to scoring at third base.
That led the way for sophomore J.B. Brown (Alvin, Texas) to knock a one-out double down the right field line, scoring Longmire to put Pacific up 1-0. Brown hit in his 18th-consecutive game and has tallied a hit in 27 of Pacific's 28 games in 2009. That was all the scoring the Tigers would get in that inning.
In the next inning, Cal Poly came back and plated three runs to take a 3-1 lead and added one more in the fourth as they jumped ahead 4-1.
Pacific tried to come up with an answer in the bottom of the third, as the Tigers trailed by three. With one out, Brown stayed hot and singled out to center to put the Tigers' first baserunner of the inning on. Wideman followed that up when he singled past the second baseman, Matt Jensen, moving Brown on a hit-and-run over to third base. With runners at the corners and one out, sophomore Brian Martin (Livermore, Calif.) singled to record an RBI and cut Pacific's deficit down to 4-2, when Brown touched home plate safely.
But a six-run sixth inning put the game out of reach for the Tigers, when Cal Poly jumped ahead 10-2. Pacific was able to plate two more runs in both the seventh and the ninth innings, coming up short in the bottom of the ninth with a runner stranded on base.
Senior RHP Larry Holscher (McArthur, Calif.) took the loss for the Tigers and dropped to 1-2 on the year, while the Mustangs' starter, DJ Mauldin, earned the win. Pacific was led by Brown who went 3-for-4 with a double and a home run.
The Tigers next return to action on Friday, April 10 for the second game of the series. First pitch is slated for 5:35 p.m. at Klein Family Field.
