Box Score Stockton, Calif. – The Pacific Tigers set a new season high in runs scored with a 14-run onslaught, defeating USF 14-2 for their first WCC series win of the season. The Tigers also set a new season high in hits with 19 and had their highest-scoring inning of the year with a six-run sixth. Four Tigers had multiple RBI and six had at least one RBI. Pacific moves to 3-3 in the WCC on the season and 9-13 overall with the home victory. The Tigers are also 7-3 at Klein Family Field. USF drops to 8-18.
Justin Giovannoni earned his first career win in the game, moving to 1-0 on the season. He went three innings in his ninth appearance, coming on in relief of Taylor Johnson and allowing just three baserunners.
After presumed Saturday starter Jake Jenkins took the mound for his second save last night, it was Johnson who got the start for the second time this year. In his last start, Johnson went a career-high four innings, giving up just one run. Johnson gave up just one run again, but left after two innings of work, replaced by Giovannoni.
The sophomore was rolling for the Tigers, tossing three scoreless innings while allowing just one hit. Giovannoni left the game in the sixth after his second scoreless outing of the year, replaced by Jenkins.
James Kannenberg started for San Francisco and made it three full innings before being replaced. Kannenberg allowed six runs, four earned, and was unable to record a strikeout as Pacific's bats kept up their recent hot play. The loss was Kannenberg's second, making him 2-2. All but one of USF's six pitchers allowed a run in the game.
Nate Verlin, back in the two-hole in the lineup, had the first hit as the game's second batter. Verlin knocked a grounder up the middle that curved away from the diving shortstop.
Verlin wasn't on base for long thanks to Danny Mayer, who blasted his fourth homer in the last five games to extend his WCC-leading total to seven on the season and move him into fifth place in the conference with 22 RBI. Mayer deposited the ball over leftfield into the parking lot to give Pacific an early 2-0 lead.
The junior also extended his hitting streak to five games, during which he has hit .435 with two doubles, three homers, seven runs, and ten RBI.
Gio Brusa also singled in the inning to give him six hits in his last six at-bats. Brusa raised his batting average 43 points with that stretch of hitting which included his third career four-hit game. The senior entered the weekend hitting .244 and ended it at .298 thanks to his torrid hitting display.
USF came back in the second and hit a homerun of their own, the first homer Johnson has allowed as a Tiger in his two seasons of work, making it 2-1.
Jimmy Boras and J.P. Yakel singled after a crushed Lucas Halstead flyout to to put the pressure on Kannenberg before a flyout ended the inning. Yakel went 2-for-3 on the day and had his streak of six straight plate appearances reaching base snapped. However, the senior still has hit 5-for-6 with a walk, a HBP, and three RBI in his last two games.
Yakel also showed off his defensive ability with his third runner caught stealing in the last two games to end the third. Yakel faked a throw to second as a man tried to steal the base then caught the runner on third leaning toward home for the out. The senior catcher has gunned down four of the last seven runners who have tried to steal on him to help Pacific along to a 37% caught stealing rate on the season.
The heart of Pacific's order continued to produce, as Verlin and Mayer reached base again in the third inning with a walk and a single, respectively. The two, combined with cleanup hitter Brusa, went 8-for-13 in the game with seven runs and five RBI. A botched transfer between the shortstop and second baseman loaded the bases.
Louis Mejia cleared the bases with an RBI double down the third base line that looked to go foul but was ruled fair. Mejia's hit gave him a four-game hitting streak and hits in 13 of 14 games. Mejia also has six RBI in the last seven games and has scored a run in his last four games, as the senior would come around to score on a wild pitch, sliding just barely under the tag at home to make it 6-1.
Yakel's HBP to start the fourth chased Kannenberg as USF went to the bullpen, bringing in Thomas Ponticelli. The pitching change did nothing to deter Verlin, who singled to left as he kept his perfect day alive, which would end with him going 3-for-4 with three runs.
The Tigers started the fifth with three singles in a row. J.J. Wagner started it off with an infield single. After that, Mejia singled to left on a hit-and-run but was cut down at third when he overslid the bag. Halstead bounced the ball as he got on top of a pitch but sent it high over the third baseman's head for his first hit of the game.
The Dons put up a run in the sixth. After a leadoff walk, USF stole second then took third on a wild pitch. The run scored when USF beat out an infield single that landed in the gap between the pitcher's mound and the third base line to make it 6-2.
Brusa blasted the ball into right center for Pacific's second homer of the game in the sixth, making it 8-2. The homer was Brusa's second of the year as well and gave him seven hits in his last nine at-bats. The senior hit .538 with three runs, two doubles, one homer, and four RBI against USF in the series. In his career, Brusa has hit .405 with nine runs, four doubles, a triple, three homers, and 13 RBI. Brusa drove in Kevin Sandri, who had previously singled.
It was Lucas Halstead's turn to add to his RBI total later in the inning. Halstead recorded his fifth RBI in five games with a single along the ground to the right side that drove in Wagner from second.
Yakel put up his third three-RBI day of the season with a bases-clearing double in the sixth. The double skirted past the diving first baseman to roll down the line and help Yakel tie his career-best single game RBI total for the third time this year. Yakel now has 11 RBI this year in 22 games, passing his total of nine last year in 40 games. The double gave Pacific six runs in the inning, setting a new season-high for single-inning scoring.
The hits kept coming for Pacific, with Verlin leading off the seventh with a double down the rightfield line. Mayer sent a bloop into left beyond the reach of every field for a double of his own after that, giving Pacific a new season high with their 18th hit of the day. The Tigers previous best was 17, set February 20 against Cal Poly. The Tigers would add another single, ending the game with 19 hits.
Brusa's sacrifice fly to deep center gave him a season-best with three RBI. It was one off his career best, done twice in April 2014 against Sacramento State and San Francisco.
Wagner became the sixth Tiger with an RBI one batter later. Despite catcher's interference being called, Wagner still managed to muscle the ball into center for an RBI single.
That was the end of the scoring for the day on both sides. Pacific was retired 1-2-3 in the eighth for the first time in the game, having previously recorded a hit every inning. Bryce Lombardi came in for the ninth inning and finished the game with a shutout performance to wrap up the win.
Pacific will be off during the upcoming week before taking on the Gonzaga Bulldogs at home starting Friday, April 1 at 7:00 pm. That series will go three games, with the United Way United We Stand game coming Saturday, April 2 at 7:00 pm and the Dads and Daughters Day game on Sunday, April 3 at 1:00 pm. Tickets for all three games are available online.
Make sure to follow Pacific baseball on Twitter with the username @PacificBaseball and on Instagram at pacificbaseball.
