Stockton, Calif. - Playing for the first time as West Coast Conference opponents, the Tigers suffered a 6-2 loss at the hands of the visiting Broncos of Santa Clara on Friday, Mar. 28. The loss was the second-straight for Pacific against Santa Clara as the Broncos took an early season non-conference matchup between the two teams in Santa Clara. With the loss, the Tigers fell to 11-16 overall and 3-4 in the WCC while the Broncos improved to 10-14 on the year and 1-3 in conference play.

Throughout the night's contest the Tigers had their chances to put runs on the board as Pacific outhit the Broncos, 11-to-8, but came up just short when it came to picking up the big hit to drive in run support of their starter, junior Michael Hager (2-3). On the other end, the Broncos used just a handful of hits to do the bulk of their damage as they came up with four runs on just five hits against Pacific's Friday starter. 

The Broncos got on the board first in the top of the third inning when a pair of mental mistakes by the Tigers in the field helped out Santa Clara's cause early. Despite the hicup in the top half of the inning, the Tigers came back to plate one of their own in the bottom half of the third when they strung together three-consecutive two out singles culminating in an RBI single by sophomore Gio Brusa. The RBI hit was the first of three hits for the Tigers' second-year leftfielder as he drove in junior Jimmy Gosano who started the run off for Pacific with the first of his two singles in the game.

The tie would last for three more innings when the Broncos broke the game open with three runs in the top of the sixth. A hit batter and a walk proved costly as the Broncos executed botha run and hit and a sacrifice fly to pick up their first run of the inning before a double to left center brought home two more.

Pacific answered with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning with three-straight single to start the inning, but saw their hit parade end prematurely as the Tigers stranded two in the inning and with it saw their chances for a comeback end as well. The run knocked in by sophomore J.P Yakel would be the last of the game for the Tigers as the Broncos shut the door on the Pacific over the final three innings, tacking on a pair of runs in the ninth to secure the win.

In all, Bronco starter D.J. Zapata (2-4) grabbed his first conference win of the season by going 7.0 innings while giving up 10 hits but only two runs. In relief, Reece Karalus (4) earned the save after entering the game in the bottom of the eighth inning and picking up the final five outs of the game including four strikeouts. Hager for the Tigers suffered the loss despite giving up just the five hits in the game in six innings of work. Freshman John Jaeger threw 2.1 innings of hitless relief, but was tagged with an earned run as one of his two walks came in to score in the ninth inning after picking up four strikeouts.

In addition to Brusa and Gosano's multi-hit games, senior Erik Lockwood and Yakel each added two hits as well while Yakel added an RBI.

The Tigers and the Broncos will play again on Saturday, Mar. 29 at 2:00 pm at Klein Family Field pending the weather.