Box Score Malibu, Calif. – The Pacific Tigers were held scoreless again in their 3-0 loss to the Pepperdine Waves Saturday, dropping their season record to 21-30. The Tigers are 11-15 in conference and will finish the year seventh in the WCC.
Shelby Lackey brought his 1.93 road ERA into today's start. The freshman went 4.1 innings, a new career high, while striking out two. Even so, Lackey took the loss to fall to 1-2.
Ryan Wilson started the procession of pitchers from Pepperdine as he went three innings before ceding the mound to Easton Lucas. After two walks in the first inning, Wilson and Lucas retired 14 of the next 16 batters they faced, with Lucas retiring seven of eight during that stretch. Lucas gave up four hits in his four innings of work securing his third win of the season. Kiko Garcia got the save with two scoreless innings.
The Tigers threatened in the first inning with walks by J.J. Wagner and Gio Brusa. The walk for Brusa was his 21st in WCC play, a total that has helped him along to a conference-leading .509 on-base percentage. Wagner's walk was his 17th this year, a new career high.
Even with the early threat, it was the Waves who took the first lead in the game. Pepperdine walked and singled in the first inning to set up men on the corners. A wild pitch scored the game's first run. The bases were soon loaded with still just one out but Pacific's defense kept the deficit at one run. Kevin Sandri fielded a grounder, took it to second himself, then tossed over to Nate Verlin for an easy double play to end the inning.
Lucas Halstead got the drama out of the way quickly in regards to his hitting steak as he chopped a single into the outfield in his first at-bat in the second. Halstead moved his hitting streak to 13 games with that single. The sophomore would steal second on a pitch in the dirt for his first career stolen base.
That stolen base made a big difference, as Halstead was able to take third on a grounder that looked to be a perfect double play ball if he had not advanced already. Even so, Halstead was stranded. He was the only Tiger with a hit in the game's first five innings as he also singled in the fourth. The two walks in the first were the only other baserunners for Pacific until the sixth.
Pepperdine's bad-luck single with one out in the second started another rally. The ball looked ready to drop foul before the wind caught hold of it and dropped it just inside the leftfield foul line for a single. The Waves filled the bases with one out again after their third and fourth walks of the game.
That scoring threat didn't matter as once again Sandri started a double play that ended the inning. Sandri had to flip to Louis Mejia this time as he made a backhanded play but got it started nonetheless as Pepperdine couldn't add to their lead. It was the fifth time in the series that the Waves had the bases loaded and could not get a hit.
The Waves homered to start the fourth inning and make it a 2-0 game. Lackey recovered well with his first strikeout of the day against the next batter as he worked through the inning with no further damage to set a new career high in innings in a game in his young career.
After a double scored Pepperdine's third run of the day, Bryce Lombardi took over for Lackey after 4.1 innings. Of the 13 runners Lombardi has inherited when entering the game this year, just two have scored after the fifth-year senior retired the first two men he faced in the fifth.
Danny Mayer was the first Tiger other than Halstead to get a hit when he singled with one out in the sixth. The hit made Mayer the owner of a 21-game hitting streak and a 34-game on-base streak.
The Tigers left Blake Barry and J.P. Yakel on bas in the seventh as the two had singles with two outs to try and create some offense for Pacific. After stranding those runners, the Tigers moved to 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position in the series and 3-for-23 with runners on base. Barry improved his batting average as a starter to .283 and his conference batting average to .275 with his single, however.
Lombardi pitched a perfect 1.2 innings before Ricky Reynoso took over for the seventh. Reynoso allowed one hit in the inning but picked the runner off as the runner broke for second as Reynoso started his pick-off move to end his appearance scoreless.
For the fourth consecutive game, Mayer put together a multi-hit day with a single into centerfield in the eighth. Mayer has hit .444 over his last four games as he has only gotten better and better as his hitting streak continues.
Jordon Gonzalez, pitching the eighth, struck out the first two men he faced on 11 pitches in his hitless inning of work. The junior has struck out 13 men in his last eight outings and has a K/9 of 10.48 this season, a mark behind only Vince Arobio among Tiger pitchers with multiple innings of work this year.
Pacific was kept off the basepaths in the ninth as the game ended 3-0 in Pepperdine's favor. It was the third time this season Pacific has been shutout.
The final game of Pacific's season will be tomorrow against Pepperdine at 1:00 pm.
Make sure to follow Pacific baseball on Twitter with the username @PacificBaseball and on Instagram at pacificbaseball.
