HILLSBORO, Ore. – Pacific got a strong pitching performance to shut the door on Portland State in game one of its doubleheader before nearly completing a late comeback bid in game two that knotted the series in Portland State's favor 6-5 at Hillsboro Stadium Saturday afternoon.

GAME 1
The bottom of the Pacific (10-19) batting order gave the pitchers a large lead to work with early on. Freshman Peyton Clifford, out of the eight spot, tallied the first run of the game on an RBI single to score junior Amanda Bricker.

Two innings later, out of the nine spot, junior Allie Capello rocketed her third homer of the season over the left field wall to bring in two and triple the Tiger lead. Over the past five games the junior has been a consistent source of offense, garnering three hits, four RBIs and two homeruns in that stretch.

A productive out from senior Delaney Scully extended the Pacific lead once again, this time to 4-1 as the Tigers got a total of three runs from the fourth inning.

A late capitalization on a Viking (5-25) error scored Pacific's final run of the first game, as freshman Jayleen Scott forced the error that allowed Capello to come around and score.
In the circle, sophomore Justice Alcaraz spun four innings of two-run softball to notch her first win since Mar. 2 against San Jose State. The right-hander struck out two batters and walked none, the win is her sixth and improved to 6-4.

In relief of Alcaraz was senior Hannah Glad, who maneuvered the final three innings to pick up her second save of the season. Like the pitcher before her, she largely pitched to contact, only striking out one batter and walking none.

GAME 2
A reversal of game one, the Pacific bats jolted to life in the later innings – scoring all five of its runs from the fifth inning on.

The Tigers relied on productive outs and Portland State mistakes in the fifth to scratch across two runs. Junior Olivia Silvestre brought home junior Asia Lee via the sacrifice fly before senior Emily Budelli scored a few pitches later off a wild pitch. The RBI was Silvestre's 17th of the campaign, moving her into sole possession of second on the team.

Inning number six was more traditional in terms of how Pacific manufactured its runs. Amanda Bricker doubled home her 15th RBI of the season before coming around herself to score a few batters later of the bat of Capello.

An RBI hit by pitch in the seventh put Pacific in position to bring home the tying and go-ahead runs but a double play snuffed out the rally.
Senior Desiree Smith opened the game for the Tigers and remained the pitcher of record, dropping to 1-5 after going one inning, giving up three runs and issuing two walks.

Freshmen Alexa Lewis and Kiley Shea worked the remaining five innings, split two for Lewis and three for Shea. Each struck out two batters and allowed no earned runs (Shea allowed three runs off a
Tiger error.

The series concludes Sunday with a single game starting at 12 p.m. on ESPN+.

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