Spokane, Wash. - Led by Louis Mejia's five-RBI night at the plate, the Tigers came up with a series-opening, 8-4, victory over Gonzaga in Spokane on Friday night. The win for Pacific (12-33, 9-13 WCC) was its third in the last four conference contests while Gonzaga (21-24, 10-12 WCC) lost its seventh game in its last 10 contests.

Entering the day as one of Pacific's hottest hitters, Mejia continued his push for post-season recognition as the junior came up with two hits in four trips to the plate while tagging the Zags for a career-best five RBI. The five RBI marked a new season high for the Tigers as Mejia became the first Tiger to knock in five runs since Taylor Murphy drove in five against USF on April 11, 2014. 

Before Mejia could get rolling, the Tigers found themselves mired in a slow start as they managed just one hit over the first four innings of play. Despite the start, the Tigers finally broke through against Gonzaga starter Andrew Sopko (7-5) when freshman DH Jed Sprague came up with a leadoff home run to start the fifth inning. Sprague, who hit a home run last week against BYU after returning from injury, took an 3-2 pitch the other way for his sixth home run of the season and first opposite field home run of the year.

The home run put a crack in the flood gates for the Tigers as they broke down the walls and let the river flow over the next two innings by plating seven runs. 

With one-run on the board but trailing for the second-time, Pacific got its scoring binge rolling with the top of the order as Tyler Sullivan started the inning off with a walk to set up the rally. After moving two bases on a wild pitch and a sacrifice, the senior would score the first run of the inning on a double down the right field line by Brett Sullivan. The double was the first of three-consecutive hits for the Tigers as Mejia followed the double with a triple while Nate Verlin came up with a single to left to finish things off for Pacific. 

After hitting one to the wall in dead center for the RBI triple in the fifth, Mejia one-upped himself as the junior came up with the biggest hit of the day a half inning later with the bases full of Tigers. With two outs and the Tigers on the brink of missing out on a big opportunity, Mejia erased all the doubt with one mighty swing as he belted a shot to deep left-center for the bases clearing grand slam on the first pitch of the at bat. The four-run bomb by Mejia was the first grand slam of the season for the Tigers and the first collegiate home run for the third-year Tiger. Mejia's big hit was made possible thanks in part to singles by J.J. Wagner and T. Sullivan as the duo framed their hits around a walk to McKay Koissian. 

Not to be outdone by his offense, junior Jake Jenkins (4-6) continued his reemergence as the Tigers' ace as he pitched his fourth-consecutive quality start to earn his third-straight win in WCC play. Over 6.0 IP, Jenkins allowed just two runs to cross the plate while scattering five hits. He would give up single runs in the fourth and fifth innings of play as the Zags capitalized on a Tiger error in the fifth for one run and came up with a two-out RBI double in the fifth for another score. Gonzaga would add two more runs in the seventh against the Tigers' pen when Jeff Bohling took Sean Bennetts deep to right with a man on to cut Pacific's lead to four. From there, the Bulldogs managed just one more hit over their final six outs of play as John Jaeger and Michael Hager finished off the win for Jenkins. Hager was particularly sharp as he threw a scoreless ninth while striking out all three Bulldogs he faced.

Offensively, the Tigers came up with 12 hits as the middle of the order all produced a pair of hits from B. Sullivan down to Sprague in the lineup. Joining the fun was Wagner as the junior third-baseman added a pair of hits himself out of the eight-hole in four at bats. For Sullivan and Mejia, both of their hits in the heart of the order were for extra-bases with Mejia accounting for six of the eight scoring tallies as he added a pair of runs to go along with his RBIs.

All eight runs were charged to Sopko in the loss as he gave up 10 hits in 7.0 IP. Cory LeBrun led the Zags with three hits while Bohling came up with three RBI on just one hit as he drove in a run on the Tigers' error in the fifth.

The Tigers will look to secure their second-straight series on Saturday, May 9, as they meet the Zags for game two of the weekend at Patterson Baseball Complex. First pitch is scheduled for 6:00 pm.