SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – The Pacific baseball program eyes its first-ever appearance in the West Coast Conference Tournament at Scottsdale Stadium, beginning Thursday, May 21 at 7 p.m. against No. 3 seed San Francisco.

The Tigers (23-28-1, 15-11-1 WCC) clinched its first berth to the WCC postseason in program history following winning five of their last six conference series to conclude the regular season as the No. 2 seed in the tournament bracket.

Led by second-year head coach Reed Peters, the Tigers don their best conference winning percentage (.574) since rejoining the WCC in 2014. When Pacific takes the field on Thursday night, it will be the program's first postseason appearance since 1998 when the team was a part of the Big West. In 1997, Pacific also competed in the Big West tournament, defeating Cal State Fullerton and Nevada, but fell to Long Beach State twice.

Pacific has been fueled by a red-hot offense, spearheaded by senior and WCC All-Conference First Team member Jake Tandy. Tandy carries a 15-game hitting streak into Thursday's tilt, including a team-best .369 clip, 32 RBIs and five home runs during the WCC slate this year. Overall, Tandy collected 45 RBIs during the regular season, setting a new career-high in that category. Tandy is two RBIs shy of tying Jason Vorhauer (1998) for the tenth most RBIs in a single season in program history.

The middle infield duo of graduate Brendan O'Sullivan and redshirt sophomore Robert Orr have set the table well for Pacific's lineup, each earning WCC All-Conference Second Team honors. O'Sullivan leads with 20 multi-hit games, 38 runs and eight bases while Orr paces Pacific with seven home runs – tied with Chaz Myers (2023) and Brett Sullivan (2015) as Pacific shortstops with the most home runs in a single season since Pacific rejoined the WCC in the 2014 season. Orr established a .298 batting average in conference play with 23 runs and 19 RBIs.

Junior Braeden Schnabel, a native of Tempe, Arizona, will look for some home cooking this week as he returns to the Valley. The 6-foot-7 outfielder was a doubles machine during league play, tallying a team-high 13 doubles to accompany a .356 batting average.

Staples of the Tigers' rotation, redshirt junior Garret Plata and redshirt junior Zach Todd are no stranger to the postseason. Plata, who owned a 2.28 earned run average in 71.0 innings with 71 strikeouts during the regular season, pitched 4.1 innings in the WCC Tournament championship game last season with Saint Mary's against San Diego, allowing just one earned run, two hits and striking out three batters. Entering Wednesday, Plata's ERA ranks top ten in the country.

Todd, the strikeout leader for Pacific with 80 to his name in 75.0 innings, struck out three batters in 1.2 scoreless innings of relief in Dallas Baptist's win over Louisiana Tech in the Conference USA Championship on May 26, 2024. Todd also recorded a scoreless inning out of the bullpen in a 7-0 win over No. 15 Arizona in the Tucson Regional that year.

Redshirt junior Carson Revay has been a reliable reliever for the Tigers this season. Revay holds a 3-2 record with a 3.19 earned run average and 55 strikeouts in 42.1 innings. Revay's nine saves are the second-most in a single season in program history, trailing only Josh Schmidt's 11 saves in 2005.

Looking at the field for the WCC Tournament, the Tigers earned the first-round bye along with No. 1 seed Gonzaga. No. 3 seed San Francisco swept No. 6 seed Santa Clara when they met during the regular season and took care of business in the opening round with a 10-4 victory over the Broncos. The Tigers took two of three at San Francisco earlier this season.

No. 4 seed Pepperdine took two out of three during the regular season over Saint Mary's. Pepperdine returns to the conference tournament as the No. 5 seed for the second time in three years. Lucien Wechsberg registered conference-high ten saves for the Waves. Kai Laxa batted .307 on the year while Daniel Patterson paced the Waves in slugging at .507.

No. 5 seed and defending tournament champion Saint Mary's heads into the conference tournament boasting a potent offense. Ian Armstrong led the conference in slugging (.640) and home runs (13), Diego Castellanos led the way in runs (54) and Makoa Sniffen tied for the league lead in hits (84) and RBI (53).

The West Coast Conference Tournament runs from May 20-23 with eight of the nine possible tournament games broadcasted on ESPN+. The championship game on Saturday, May 23, will be seen on ESPNU at 1 p.m. For all information about the WCC tournament, visit the link here.

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