2005 SEASON REVIEW

When the 2005 season began in early February we knew that our schedule included 17 games against teams that made the 2004 NCAA Tournament. We knew the team had 25 new players, including an entirely new starting outfield. Looking deeper at the schedule, there were eight games against Pac-10 opponents and a much tougher and deeper Big West Conference than ever before. What wasn't known is how the 2005 Tigers would respond to the challenge.

The response was a 30-28 record, the first winning season at Pacific since 1999. The Tigers finished their Big West schedule at 9-12, a four game improvement over 2004. Pacific also took two games from teams ranked in the top-25 this season, including the first victory in school history over a top-10 opponent (5-1 over No. 9 Long Beach State on Apr. 22).

Overall the 2005 season was a step forward for this program and a building block for the future.

Taking a closer look at the season, the Tigers got off to a good start in the first game as Pacific defeated California, 5-4, in Berkeley. The Tigers jumped out to a 5-0 lead by the top of the fourth inning as newcomers Luke Massetti and Matt Berezay (right) made an immediate impact. Berezay launched the first home run of the season in the third inning, a solo shot. Massetti, meanwhile, allowed just two hits in six innings. A late comeback attempt by the Golden Bears was ended by Josh Schmidt as he struck out four of six batters in an inning and a third to pick up his first save.

At the first tournament of the year, Pacific went undefeated in the River City Classic, a five-team tournament featuring teams from Northern California (Saint Mary's, San Francisco, UC Davis, Sacramento State and Pacific.) The Tigers finished 3-0 in the tournament earning the River City Classic Championship. Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth in game one of the tournament against Saint Mary's, the Tigers scored single runs in the ninth, tenth and eleventh to win the game. The 6-5 victory was highlighted by a game-tying home run with one out in the tenth from Jordan Seiber, and a game-winning single in the eleventh inning from Jake Ross.

In the River City Classic the Tigers proved that every player on the roster was ready to contribute at a given moment. Following the tournament, Justin Baum, Brandon Gottier, Anthony Jackson and Tyler McCready were named to the All-Tournament Team. Pacific's four players were the most for any team.

After a tough trip to Hawai'i, the Tigers came back with a 6-5 record heading to UCLA for three games. Pacific dropped the first game to the Bruins, but rallied for a 7-5 win in game two, then took the series with a dramatic 10-9 win on Sunday. The 7-5 victory on Feb. 26 saw the return of Matt Pena, who struck out the only batter he faced on three pitches. As most of you know, Pena needed `Tommy John' surgery after suffering a torn ulnar-collateral ligament on the UCLA mound just over one year prior to that day. In the series finale Pacific scored two runs in the top of the ninth inning for the win after giving up the lead in the bottom of the eighth.

Following the series, Berezay earned Pacific's first Big West Conference Player of the Week honor as he was 4-for-9 witha two-run home run in each of the Tigers' victories over UCLA. Matt finished the weekend with a 1.111 slugging percentage and a .615 on-base percentage.

Pacific continued to roll the next weekend at home as the Tigers took two of three from San Francisco. After dropping the series opener, we swept a doubleheader from the Dons on Saturday, March 5. In that doubleheader, Josh Schmidt tied the all-time save record in the early game, then broke it with his 12th career save in game two.

After a tough patch in the Pacific Northwest, the Tigers were 11-15 and looking at a road contest against 12th ranked Stanford. It would have been very easy to throw in the towel, but the Tigers did exactly the opposite. Pacific pulled off a 2-0, 10-inning upset of the Cardinal as Adam Ching and Ramon Glasgow were a combined 5-for-8 with a run scored each. Berezay drove home both Ching and Glasgow with a two-out single. On the mound, Pena, McCready, Gregg Reynolds and Schmidt held the Cardinal to just four hits.

The Big West Conference season opened at UC Santa Barbara as the Tigers took two of three from the Gauchos. Brett Manning came to the forefront during this series as he hit his first two collegiate home runs in the 7-4 win in game one of the series. Brett came back to get the win on the mound in the series finale, allowing one run on five hits in six innings. Manning finished the series 6-for-10 with seven RBI.

Another difficult stretch was ended when the Tigers defeated No. 9 Long Beach 5-1 for the first victory over a top-10 opponent in school history. Massetti (right) was brilliant on the mound, allowing one run on four hits while striking out seven in eight innings. Offensively, Pacific got a solo home run from Baum and two hits from Gottier as the Tigers defeated one of the top rated pitchers in the country in Cesar Ramos.

Following the weekend, Massetti earned Pacific's first Big West Pitcher of the Week Award. He was also named to the College Baseball Foundation Honor Roll.

The Tigers dropped the next four to fall to 18-26, but the effect of fighting back all season was about to take shape.

Since the month of May began, Pacific closed the season 12-2, including series victories over UC Irvine, Cal State Northridge and sweeps of Sacramento State and UC Davis. The month began with a 6-1 win over Saint Mary's on May 1 as Jason Haar tossed the first complete game of the season, allowing only one run on seven hits in his best performance with the Tigers. In the next contest, Pacific scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning on May 6 to stun UC Irvine, 6-5. Baum and Manning each had two hits and two RBI in the game.

Rain forced the series finale with UC Irvine to Monday, May 9, when Pacific scored eight runs to take the series with an 8-3 win. Will Brindza got the game started in the bottom of the first inning as his three-run triple gave Pacific a lead they would not relinquish.

The final Big West series of the season proved to be special as in Northridge, Baum and Berezay put on a power hitting clinic. Berezay finished the series 7-for-13 with five home runs, eight RBI and eight runs scored. Matt had a ridiculous slugging percentage of 1.846 in the series as Pacific took two from the Matadors. Including the victory over UC Irvine on May 9, Baum was 13-16 at the plate (.813) with four home runs and 11 RBI. His slugging percentage was 1.813 and his on-base percentage was .850. In addition to his 13 hits, Baum drew one walk and was hit three times. Justin scored nine runs, had two doubles, one triple and 29 total bases in the four games that week.

Following that performance, Baum was honored as one of Collegiate Baseball's National Players of the Week for the week of May 9-15, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Pro-LineCap National Player of the Week and Big West Conference Player of the Week.

The final two weekends of the season saw Pacific nab back-to-back series sweeps over Sacramento State and UC Davis. Baum finished the season with 17 home runs to break Pacific's all-time single season record for home runs, passing Vic Sanchez, who had 15 in 1994. Schmidt closed the season with a 1.79 ERA to lead the Tigers and an average of 13.3 strikeouts per nine innings, the second highest average in the nation.

Five Tigers earned All-Big West honors following the season as Baum earned a spot on the All-Big West First Team. Schmidt was named to the All-Big West Second Team, while Berezay, Gottier and Massetti all received All-Big West Honorable Mention.

Baum continued to grab post-season honors as he was a Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American.