Stockton, Calif. - Closing out the 2014 WCC regular season, the Pacific baseball team finished on a high note as the Tigers took down LMU, 6-2, on Sunday, May 18, at Klein Family Field. The win put the Tigers' conference record at 15-12 overall and in 6th place while denying the Lions a share of the overall title as they finished 17-10 in conference play and in second place. Overall, Pacific bumped its record to .500 at 26-26 with one game to play while the Lions end the regular season at 30-22.

On a day in which the Tigers honored their seven departing seniors, it was a junior who did the bulk of the damage for Pacific in the contest as Taylor Murphy finished the day 3-for-5 and just a triple short of the cycle while driving in four RBIs. Murphy's big day at Klein may have been his final appearance at his home field as the third-year right-fielder continued to improve his draft stock over the final month of the season culminating in his performance against the Lions.

Yet, with Murphy leading the way, it was the seniors that awakened the Tigers' sleeping bats as Erik Lockwood and John Haberman kicked off Pacific's day with back-to-back hits in the bottom of the second, including a double down the right field line by Haberman. With two in scoring position, Pacific took its first lead of the series with a ground ball to short off the bat of sophomore J.J. Wagner that brought home Lockwood and made it a 1-0 contest. 

Three innings later, it was senior Curtis Gomez who got the ball rolling for Pacific in the bottom of the fifth as he laced a double to left center to turn the lineup over. With Gomez on second, Murphy would provide some fireworks to the contest as he let loose his fifth home run of the last month to put Pacific ahead 3-0. With two on the board, the heart of the order made it a four run game when sophomores Brett Sullivan and Gio Brusa came up with back-to-back doubles to score a third run in the inning.

Pacific put the finishing touches on their offensive outburst an inning later with their second crooked number as the Tigers plated two more runs. Again, it was the seniors that started the rally as Haberman singled for his second hit of the day while Wagner was hit by a pitch and Gomez walked to load the bases. From there, Murphy came up clutch for a second time, doubling down the left field line to push home both runs in the inning.

With the offense finally providing the pitching staff with some much needed run support, freshman Will Lydon (3-4) took the ball and ran with it on the mound as the first-year hurler stymied the bats of the Lions for seven solid innings to earn his third win of the season. In 7.1 innings pitched, Lydon scattered eight hits before finally relinquishing his first run of the game in the top of the eighth. He would give way to the pen with one out in the eighth as the Lions threatened to climb back into the contest but were denied by senior Kyle Crawford and freshman Vince Arobio. In the ninth, freshman John Jaeger slammed the door on the Lions' title hopes as he got a little help from his battery mate, sophomore J.P. Yakel, who back picked a runner at first to start the inning.

Overall, the Tigers posted a weekend-best 12 hits in the game against the Lions with seven of the nine starters recording at least one hits. The loss in the game went to the Lions' J.D. Busfield who was tagged for eight hits and four runs in 4.2 innings of work in his seventh start of the season.

Pacific will close out the 2014 season on Monday, May 19, when they go to Stanford to take on the Carindal at 5:30 pm. The game was originally scheduled for Tuesday but was moved to Monday with the postseason looming for the Tigers.