SAN FRANCISCO – The Pacific baseball program won its third consecutive West Coast Conference series, topping San Francisco in an 8-2 victory on Sunday afternoon at Benedetti Diamond.
Redshirt junior
Garret Plata poised the Tigers (17-24, 9-9 WCC) with his fourth quality start in a row of WCC play, blanking the Dons (20-21, 11-7 WCC) through six frames while the offense continued its home run havoc in the Bay Area.
Plata (4-2) picked up his third straight conference win, spinning six innings of shutout ball with five strikeouts of Don hitters. Plata has not allowed an earned run in 15 consecutive innings in league play. That streak is the longest by a Pacific starter since Ricky Reynoso in 2017, who threw 20 straight WCC innings without allowing an earned run from April 23, 2017, to May 14, 2017, in victories over Saint Mary's, Portland and Santa Clara.
With six more scoreless frames in today's matinee, Plata lowered his earned run average to 1.52 on the season, which sits atop the WCC leaderboard with 53.1 innings pitched this year.
Looking at the offense, the Tigers have been fueled by the long ball of late as senior
Grant MacArthur and junior
Braeden Schnabel launched home runs in the matinee. Pacific has homered in seven straight contests, which is the most with head coach
Reed Peters at the helm and the longest such stretch since eight games from April 26, 2022, to May 12, 2022.
For MacArthur, his fifth-inning solo shot gave Pacific a 4-0 lead at the time, giving Plata and the defense plenty of comfort to cruise to victory. MacArthur has homered in back-to-back games, marking the second time in his collegiate career doing so with his first occurrence coming at UConn last season against Boston College and Seton Hall. He now sits second on the Tigers in home runs with four, two behind redshirt sophomore
Robert Orr's six.
Speaking of Orr, the sure-handed shortstop had another productive day at the dish with a 3-for-5 performance. Graduate student
Brendan O'Sullivan added to his team-leading run total of 29, crossing home three times and bringing home a run as the lead-off hitter Sunday.
Senior
Jake Tandy capped a hot weekend at the plate, knocking in a game-high three runs. It marked his fourth 3+ RBI game of the season, raising his team-high tally to 31.
Following Plata, freshman
Connor Raridan (four strikeouts in 2.2 innings) and redshirt junior
Carson Revay carried the rest of the way to sealing the Tigers' third straight conference series win, putting the Tigers in a tie for fifth place in the conference standings.
Sunday's series win also marked the first time the Tigers took a series from the Dons on the road since 2014 – the first year Pacific rejoined the WCC. That same year is the last time Pacific has won three straight series in league play.
The Tigers return home to host its final homestand of the season, beginning with a Tuesday tilt against Cal State Bakersfield on Faculty and Staff Appreciation Night. First pitch is slated for 5:05 p.m. from Klein Family Field.
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