Stockton, Calif. – The Pacific Tigers had won four road games in a row before falling 9-4 to the UC Davis Aggies in an afternoon game Friday in Davis.  The Aggies managed two four-run innings to get the W and drop Pacific to 17-22 on the season.

The Tigers put Will Lydon on the mound for the series opener.  The junior was hurt by a big third inning from UC Davis and ended up giving up more than three earned runs for just the third time in his 13 appearances this season.  Lydon gave up five in the first three innings, then shut down the Aggies until he was chased in the seventh.  Lydon ended the day with nine earned runs against him and dropped to 2-8 on the season.

Robert Garcia gave up four runs in his six innings of work but left with the lead for UC Davis.  Opponents were hitting .177 against Garcia entering today but the Tigers managed to hit .320 with six extra-base hits.  Even so, Garcia got the win to move to 3-2.  Matt Blais earned his first save of the year for the Aggies with four innings of relief.

Louis Mejia continued to rake in non-conference play with a first-inning single.  Mejia got around on an inside pitch and sent it blistering past the diving third baseman into left on a line.  The senior second baseman is now hitting .357 with 11 runs, four doubles, and nine RBI outside of WCC play.  Mejia was caught stealing to end the first.

The first batter of the game for the Aggies singled through the right side to open up the offense for the home team.  UC Davis' Tanner Bily then stole second, sliding under the high throw to move into scoring position.  That proved costly as the next ball was hit straight to Mejia for what may have been a double play but instead moved the runner to third with just one out.

A single curved away from Lydon's glove as the pitcher made a stab at the soft liner that ended up in center to score the game's first run.  Kevin Sandri stopped the rally by getting in front of a hot shot and starting a 6-4-3 double play. 

J.P. Yakel doubled in the third inning on a ball that was almost identical to Mejia's hit but had it bounce into the corner to allow Yakel to take second.  Yakel has flourished when batting ninth this year, as his double moved his batting average in the nine-hole to .327.

A bad hop ate up Sandri in the third to put Davis' leadoff man on with an infield single.  The Aggies tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt after that but perfect positioning gave them a single and two baserunners without an out. 

The Aggies scored both runners with a double into the gap one batter later, making it 3-0.  The next batter also doubled just over the head of Gio Brusa, who was close enough to force the lead runner to make sure it wouldn't be caught and only move to third.

That runner may not have been able to score on the double but a checked-swing single scored him anyway.  Mejia made a fine play on the run to spin and throw out the next batter at first but the groundout still scored a run and made it 5-0.

J.J. Wagner ensured that the fourth inning wasn't nearly so rocky for Lydon by starting two groundouts in the 1-2-3 inning.  On the second, Wagner crashed in at full speed on a surprise bunt and fired a rocket to first to beat the runner.

The recent hot hitting of Nate Verlin continued when he led off the fifth with a double.  Verlin took the very first pitch he saw down the line on a rope.  Over the last six games, Verlin is hitting .520.

The second pitch of the inning was even better for Pacific when Lucas Halstead launched it over rightfield for his second homerun of the season.  Halstead was able to jog around the bases as the ball looked gone for sure off the bat.  The sophomore now has six RBI in his last five games thanks to the two-run shot.

The offense continued as Pacific had their third extra-base hit of the inning, all without recording an out.  Wagner sent a high popup into shallow left and legged out a double as he never stopped running on a ball that landed just out of the range of the leftfielder.

With two outs, Sandri lined the ball into right-center to score Wagner and make it 5-3.  Sandri was flying around the bases and managed a double on what looked far too shallow to allow him to take second at first.  The freshman was stranded at second when Mejia just barely was thrown out at first on a grounder bouncing away from the second baseman.  Sandri's hit gave him a four-game hitting streak as well, a stretch during which he has hit .308 with two runs and two doubles.

Another Tiger extra-base hit started the sixth.  It was Danny Mayer's turn to double, as his grounder barely stayed fair past third before veering off toward the bullpen in foul territory.  The double extended Mayer's hitting streak to nine games.  He has five doubles and three homers in that time, scoring nine runs and driving in six.

Verlin's infield single scored Mayer to give Mayer 35 runs scored this year, the sixth-most in the WCC.  Verlin hit a hard grounder at the first baseman, who dove to corral the ball.  The pitcher was late covering the bag and Verlin beat the first baseman there in a foot race for the single.

The Davis offense made some trouble in the seventh with two singles to start the inning.  Sandri had to charge hard on a soft chopper that just barely slid under his glove for an infield hit that made it men on first and second with no outs.  Lydon intentionally walked the batter soon thereafter when a sacrifice bunt moved the runners up.

The force at any base didn't matter as Davis doubled to right and scored two more runs.  That ended Lydon's night as well, bringing Jordon Gonzalez into the game.

The Tigers brought the infield in but the gamble cost them another run.  UC Davis was able to just barely tap the ball over Mejia's head to score a run.  A balk during the next at-bat made it 9-4. 

Brusa made it 16 games in a row reaching base when he singed a single in the eighth after Mayer's second double of the day.  Brusa hit the ball too hard to score Mayer as it ended up in front of the rightfielder in a hurry.  Unfortunately, the Tigers couldn't get another run as they left men on the corners.

One bloop single from Wagner was all Pacific could manage with a five-run deficit in the ninth as the Tigers took the road loss to start the series. 

The Tigers will face off with UC Davis again tomorrow in Stockton at 6:00 pm.  That game will feature post-game fireworks.  The series between Pacific and UC Davis will finish up on Sunday at 1:00 pm in Davis.  Tickets for all home games are available online.

Make sure to follow Pacific baseball on Twitter with the username @PacificBaseball and on Instagram at pacificbaseball.