Box Score Stockton, Calif. – The Pacific Tigers defeated the Fresno State Bulldogs 7-3 in a midweek road game for their fourth straight win against Fresno State over the last two years. Pacific fell behind 3-0 in the first inning but didn't allow a run the rest of the game, hitting three homers to take the lead and hold it for the win. Pacific has defeated Fresno State in five of their last six games as well. The Tigers third road win this season moved their overall record to 12-18.
Taylor Johnson got the midweek start for the Tigers and looked excellent in recording the longest outing of his career at six innings. Johnson also struck out three men to set a new career high and allowed no runs after giving up three in the first inning.
At one point, Johnson retired nine straight and ended his night retiring ten of the last 11 men he faced while earning his third win. Johnson combined with Fineas Del Bonta-Smith to retire the leadoff Bulldog hitter every single inning.
Vince Arobio picked up his third save by striking out the last batter of the game with the bases loaded and two outs.
Rickey Ramirez made his first start of the year for the Bulldogs and was pulled after 3.2 innings. Ramirez gave up only four hits but also walked three and allowed two homers. The four runs allowed by Ramirez gave him the loss.
Kevin Sandri fell behind 1-2 to start the game. The freshman fouled off several pitches before roping a single over the head of the shortstop, immediately giving Pacific a baserunner. Sandri is hitting .457 when leading off an inning so far this season. Unfortunately, Sandri was erased by a double play and the Tigers left the first with no runs.
The Bulldogs singled twice in the first inning to start their scoring rally. Johnson got the next man he faced with the swinging strikeout on just three pitches but saw a third single into right put the first run on the board for Fresno State.
A second run scored on a defensive lapse to widen Fresno State's lead. The Tigers threw down to second to try and gun down the man stealing. As soon as the ball left the catcher's hand, the runner on third broke for home. Vinny Margiotta alertly threw home but couldn't get it there in time as the run scored.
The runner on second managed to score on an infield single after that. The runner was hustling all the way and crossed the plate as Sandri's throw to first across the diamond wasn't quite in time to get the third out.
J.J. Wagner hit his fifth homer of the year in the second, his second homerun in as many games. Wagner had just two homers in his first three years of Pacific, a total he has surpassed in the last five games alone. The homer to the scoreboard in leftfield was also Wagner's sixth extra-base hit in the last six games.
Wagner joins Gio Brusa and Danny Mayer as the only Tigers with five or more homers this year. The last time Pacific has had at least three different hitters record five homers in a year was 2010, when Mike Walker, Joe Oliveira, J.B. Brown, Nick Longmire, and Brett Christopher all had at least that many.
Brusa pushed ahead of Wagner in total homers with a blast of his own in the fourth following a Mayer walk to tie the game at three. It was Brusa's sixth homer of the year, adding to his career-best total, and ended up right near Wagner's landing spot as Brusa went opposite field.
Over his last ten games, Brusa has now hit .425 with 11 runs, five doubles, five homers, and 13 RBI. The senior moved to fourth in the WCC in homers after tonight as well.
Making the first start of his career, Joey Mejia added his first RBI and first extra-base hit after Brusa's homer to give the Tigers the lead. Nate Verlin walked, Pacific's third walk in the first four innings, before Mejia knocked a hot grounder down the line past third base to coast into second as Verlin came around to score. The younger Mejia has hit .375 so far his freshman year.
Johnson took the lead and ran with it for the Tigers. The sophomore worked six innings for Pacific and did not allow any Bulldogs to reach base after being handed a one-run lead until a single into short center with two outs in the sixth.
Another single up the middle came after that as Fresno State put men on the corners with two outs. Johnson paid the threat no mind, getting an easy groundout to end the inning.
Lucas Halstead added to the Pacific lead in the seventh as he led off the inning with a homer, the third of the game for the Tigers. Halstead had been flirting with homering all season with numerous blasts that fell just short, including a triple in AT&T Park and a double high off the wall in center last weekend.
The sophomore went opposite field as he muscled the ball over the rightfield wall to make it 5-3. It was the third extra-base hit in the last three games for Halstead, a span in which he has hit .455 with two walks, both of them in tonight's game. The homer also gave Pacific three homeruns in the game, the first time this year they have homered more than two times in one game.
Del Bonta-Smith came on to pitch in the seventh and went 2.2 innings for the longest of his seven multi-inning outings. The freshman also set a new career high in strikeouts with five, getting the last two men he faced swinging in the eighth and carried that over to the ninth, where he struck out the first hitter.
Blake Barry, who entered the game late as a pinch-hitter for Jimmy Boras, doubled in the ninth inning after Halstead's second walk of the game to give the Tigers a three-run lead. Barry took a fastball and hit it straight down the leftfield line into the corner to allow Halstead to score all the way from first.
Barry would also score in the inning to make it 7-3. Sandri's groundout moved Barry to third, then a wild pitch let Barry jog home for the insurance run.
Fresno State put two men on in the ninth inning as they attempted to start a four-run comeback. Del Bonta-Smith struck out the first batter of the inning, but a single to center and a walk followed that. The Tigers got an infield popup for the second out but loaded the bases with a walk one batter later.
Arobio came on to the mound looking for the final out of the game and did his job. Arobio struck out the only man he faced to leave the bases loaded and give Pacific the victory.
The Tigers head to Oregon for a three-game series against WCC foe Portland this weekend. The Friday game in that series will begin at 6:00 pm, with the games on Saturday and Sunday both scheduled for 1:00 pm.
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