STOCKTON, Calif. – Jumping ahead early and never looking back, the Pacific baseball team (17-33, 7-19) bounced back to even the series against Pepperdine (19-25, 11-15) as the Tigers handled the Waves, 11-7, in game two on Friday night.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
- Despite an RBI single from Aharon Modlin that plated the first run of the game for Pepperdine to open the contest, Pacific answered quickly with five runs on four hits and one Waves error in the bottom of the first to take an early 5-1 lead. In the inning, sophomore Thomas Gavello began the scoring for the Tigers with his tenth home run of the season followed by junior Ben Nemivant reaching on an error with the bases loaded. Next, junior Jeremy Lea stayed hot at the dish with a two-run single into centerfield that pushed across Nemivant and senior Charles Middleton.
- After Pepperdine added another run in the top of the second, Pacific poured it on with four more runs on four hits in the home half of the second, extending their advantage to 9-2. In the outburst, the Tigers pieced together three RBI singles from Nemivant and seniors Alex LeForestier and Joe Fitzhugh as well as an RBI groundout from Lea.
- In the two innings to follow, neither side got much going offensively as the Waves did not score again until the top of the fifth when they tacked on two runs on two hits and one Tiger error to trim their deficit to 9-4.
- Keeping close, Pepperdine pushed across their fifth run in the top of the sixth before the Tigers added one more run of their own in their turn in the inning. Unfortunately, Lea crushed what would have been his eighth home run of the season, but missed touching home as he crossed the plate and was called out after exiting the field of play.
- Moving into the seventh, Gavello roped an RBI double down the right field line to give the Tigers the 11-5 lead before he was thrown out at third on the throw to end the inning.
- After starter Hayden Pearce exited for the final time in the Orange & Black in the top of the eighth, junior Zach Patterson came on in relief and would only allow one mistake in his 1.2 innings of work. In the ninth, Reese Alexiades homered over the left field wall to cut the Tiger lead to four, but Patterson was able to buckle down and secure the series-evening victory by a final score of 11-7.
NOTABLE PERFORMANCES:
- Impressively, Gavello's tenth long ball of the season made him the first Tiger to notch double digit home runs since James Free II (14) and Danny Mayer (12) in 2017.
- For Pearce, the senior finished with a final line of 7.1 IP, 7 H, 6 K, 4 ER and 1 BB. Overall, it was his 47th appearance and 35th start as the right hander went 6+ innings for the sixth time this season and tenth time in his career on Friday night. Notably, his six strikeouts against the Waves also tied for his third most in a start in his career.
- Enjoying an offensive outbreak, the first six hitters in the Tiger lineup recorded at least one hit in game two, with Gavello and Lea leading the way by going a combined 7-for-9 with six RBI. Notably, Gavello and junior James Arakawa both tallied 2+ hits on Friday to tie for the new team lead with 12 multi-hit games.
UP NEXT:
Game three of the series and the final contest of the 2021 regular season is set for tomorrow, Saturday, May 29 at 1:00 pm PDT at Klein Family Field. Senior day festivities will begin approximately at 12:30 pm and will be available via live streaming. Live stream and live statistics links for the game are available via the team's schedule page on pacifictigers.com.
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