STOCKTON, Calif. – The Pacific softball team dropped a non-conference doubleheader to Nevada Saturday afternoon, falling 6-4 and 8-7 in extra innings at Bill Simoni Field.
"I'm proud of how the team played today," Head Coach Brian Kolze said after the game. "It came down to the fact that Nevada was one play better than us … it was sad to lose two games because they fought so hard."
Nevada 6, Pacific 4
Regan Hamilton put the Tigers (2-9) on top in the early stages of the opening game as she sent a towering two-run home run over the left-center field fence in the bottom half of the second inning. After Nina Davis reached on a leadoff double, Hamilton struck the team's first long ball of the season to give the Tigers a 2-0 advantage. The junior from Taft, Calif., notched her fifth career home run and tallied her first two RBI of the season.
Six unanswered runs in the following two innings gave the Wolf Pack (12-2) a 6-2 advantage as the Tigers played catchup the rest of the game.
Rian Dirmeyer recorded a solo home run in the bottom half of the fourth inning to start a midgame rally, cutting the deficit in half, 6-3. Niki Enriquez plated the Tigers' fourth run of the game later in the inning after she stole third base and scored on a throwing error from the catcher, Aaliyah Jenkins.
The Wolf Pack shut out the Tigers in the final three innings to solidify the win.
Nevada 8, Pacific 7 (nine innings)
The Wolf Pack opened a 5-0 lead after the first two innings of play and kept the Tigers to one run in the first four innings.
Trailing 5-1 in the fifth inning, the Tigers scored three runs to cut the deficit to one, 5-4, highlighted by an Allie Capello bases-clearing three-RBI double.
After the Wolf Pack extended their advantage to 6-4 in the top half of the seventh inning, the Tigers scored two runs in the bottom half to even the game at six. With two outs on the board and the bases loaded, Carly Lucchetti recorded a two-RBI single to left field, scoring Marissa Fabian and Capello.
The two teams traded runs in the eighth inning, and the Wolf Pack jumped ahead in the ninth, scoring the game-winning run on a wild pitch.
The Tigers accumulated a season-high 14 hits during the second game of the doubleheader, with Lucchetti, Hamilton, Capello, and Delaney Scully all notching two apiece.
With the final game of the three-game series against Nevada on Sunday, Feb. 26, canceled due to inclement weather, Pacific returns to action on Friday, March 3, as it takes on St. Bonaventure and Niagara in the Hawaii Spring Fling Tournament at the Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
