STOCKTON, Calif. – Down by two in the last inning, the Pacific baseball team's offense ignited at the right time, scoring three runs to secure a walk-off win over Utah Valley, 6-5, on Tuesday afternoon at Klein Family Field.
The Tigers improve to 3-6 at home and 3-13 overall on the season while the Wolverines (4-12) drop their second game in a row.
"It was a gutsy effort by our group to battle back," Pacific head coach
Chris Rodriguez said. "We played hard, and the bullpen guys did their job. Overall, I enjoyed watching the team rally back."
Sophomore
Jack Metcho was a catalyst in the two-hole, slashing a pair of triples and collecting three RBIs on the day. Metcho also scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth that sent the Tigers home happy.
"It was all about trusting my swing and trusting myself at the plate," Metcho said.
Freshman
JT Shank drove in the winning run in a pinch-hit role, reaching on a fielding error to give the Tigers the 6-5 victory and a feeling of satisfaction.
"I put myself in a position to do what I can do," Shank said. "That's a great team win. We had a lot of guys come in off the bench that did a lot of great things today."
Redshirt sophomore
Austin McKinney picked up his first win on the season after throwing a clean top of the ninth inning. Sophomore
Jacob Smith earned his second start of the season, pitching 2.1 innings and allowing three earned runs on two hits and two walks while striking out one batter.
Utah Valley scored the game's opening run in the top of the first as the leadoff hitter doubled and eventually scored on a balk to make the score 1-0 for the visitors.
In the bottom of the second, the Tigers responded with a three-run rally that featured a pair of two-out, run-producing hits by Metcho and sophomore
Kaden Petersen, presenting the home team with a 3-1 advantage.
The Wolverines countered with two in the top of the third to tie and then one in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice fly to retake the lead, 4-3.
Utah Valley got an insurance run in the top of the seventh to extend its lead to 5-3.
Pacific had put pressure on Utah Valley in previous innings, but finally, in the bottom of the ninth, the Tigers strung together a game-winning rally. Metcho drove in the tying runs with a two-run triple to deep left center field, scoring senior
Chase Graves and sophomore
Andre Vidal. After a pair of intentional walks to load the bases, Shank came up to the plate and delivered the walk-off win for the Tigers. Shank legged out the bad fielding mistake by the Wolverine first baseman to seal the deal with Metcho crossing home plate.
Pacific hits the road for its next series as the team travels to face Lamar at 4 pm on Friday at Vincent-Beck Field.
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