Stockton, Calif. - Tied at 4-4 heading to the ninth, the Pacific baseball team relinquished a single run in the top of the final inning of play to suffer a 5-4 loss at the hands of Gonzaga on Sunday, Mar. 23. The loss gave the conference series to the Bulldogs as they improved to 9-13 on the year and 5-1 in WCC play while the Tigers dropped to 11-15 overall and 3-3 in conference action. Overall the two teams split the season series at 2-2 with the Tigers taking the solo non-conference contest earlier in the season.

In a game reminiscent of the day prior, the Tigers fell behind early before battling their way back into the game only to fall on late runs in the ninth inning. Prior to the final stanza, the two teams put together a wild start to what settled into a pitchers duel as they traded four runs a piece over the first three innings of play. 

In the first, the Tigers gave up a single run to Gonzaga as a leadoff walk came around to score the opening run of the game. In the bottom half of the inning, Pacific got the run back when sophomore Gio Brusa started the inning off with a triple to right-center. He would jog home on a deep fly ball to left off the bat of sophomore Brett Sullivan.

With the game tied at 1-1, Pacific saw the Bulldogs throw up a three-spot in the top of the second. A day after plating eight against the Tigers in the same frame, the Bulldogs used three-straight one-out singles to plate their first run of the inning before Pacific again lost control of the zone to walk in a run. The final run of the inning came on a sacrifice fly to give the Zags the early 4-1 lead.

Pacific again began to chip away at the Bulldogs early game lead in the bottom half of the frame when the bottom half of the order came up with a pair of two-out singles to score a single run. After freshman McKay Koissian laced a single to right, junior Jimmy Gosano brought the run home with a single the other way to cut the deficit in half at 4-2.

An inning later, the Tigers tied the game up at 4-4 when Brusa got the ball rolling by wearing a 1-2 pitch to start the inning. He moved to third on a flied double down the left field line by Sullivan before coming in to score on a ground ball to the right side by sophomore J.P. Yakel. Sullivan, after moving to third on the ground ball, came in to score the tying run when junior Taylor Murphy delivered the RBI single to center.

The runs for the Tigers would be their last as the two pitching staffs hunkered down for the long hall by posting five innings of scoreless baseball before the fateful final inning. Senior Kyle Crawford shutdown the Bulldogs for 6.0 innings out of the pen for the Tigers as he entered the game in the third inning and scattered five hits while striking out three and walking four. Sean-Luke Brija (2-0) earned the win for the Zags out of the pen as he pitched the final 1.2 innings of the contest after entering the game in the bottom of the eighth inning with Pacific threatening to take the lead. Brija would get the rally killing double play to end the bases loaded threat in the eighth before stranding a pair of runners on base in the bottom of the ninth to secure the victory for Gonzaga.

The loss went to junior Michael Benson (0-3) who gave up two-hits including an RBI two-out single Cory LeBrun in the ninth. Neither starter factored into the decision as both gave up four runs in the game but were taken off the hook by the bullpens.

Offensively, Sullivan moved his hit streak to 16-games after going 1-for-3 with an RBI. Brusa finished 2-fo-4 with two runs scored while Murphy and Gosano each added a pair of hits and an RBI.

The Tigers will look to rebound against Santa Clara on Friday, Mar. 28 as the Broncos come to Klein Family Field at 6:00 pm for the first of three WCC contests.