The Pacific University baseball team dropped a pair of games to No. 20 Centenary, 8-3 and East Texas Baptist, 3-1 on Sunday in Shreveport, Louisiana to wrap up the opening weekend of the 2018 season.
The Boxers (0-4) started the day with a loss to the host Gents, who defeated them 7-2 in the season opener on Friday afternoon. Pacific held a 3-2 lead until Centenary played four runs in the sixth and added two more in the eighth in the win.
Senior
Eli Wisdom had two hits and two RBI and junior
Derek Ridgway also had two hits in the loss for Pacific, who had seven hits in the loss.
Trailing 2-0 in the fourth, Pacific got on the board on a sacrifice fly by
Joey Galeno (pictured), who brought in Wisdom. Earlier in the inning, Wisdom singled through the right side, who later moved to third on a double by
Derek Ridgway. With a one-run deficit, the Boxers took their first lead of the day on a two-RBI single by Wisdom in the fifth inning.
Four pitchers saw action for the Boxers including starting pitcher
Casey Brown, who pitched 5.1 innings in his first Pacific start, striking out four in the loss.
A 13-hit attack by Centenary was led by Gage Garber, who had four hits and Peyton Cormane came off the bench to drive in four to go along with two hits to lead the Gents. Preston Ludwick came out of the bullpen, holding the Boxers to two hits in 3.2 innings of work to pick up the win.
In the final game of the day, East Texas Baptist scored twice in the bottom half of the second and added an insurance run in the third en route to the 3-1 win over the Boxers.
Five-different Boxers had a hit in the loss and four-different pitchers saw action including freshman
Bryce Wlodarchak, who got his first start in a losing effort.
In the second inning, Pacific loaded the bases to begin the inning. Freshman
Max Nealon reached on a fielder's choice, scoring Galeno who had reached on an error to start the inning. Pacific managed to reload the bases, later in the inning, before a fly out kept the Boxers from adding to its lead.
A two-RBI single in the bottom half of the second by the Tigers put ETBU ahead 2-1. The Tigers added an unearned run in the fourth inning for a 3-1 advantage. Pacific stranded a base runner in the fifth and seventh innings, respectively.
Pacific will come back home to host some non-conference action against its Northwest Conference foes including Pacific Lutheran on Friday, Feb. 9 at 5:30 p.m. on the new synthetic turf infield at Chuck Bafaro Stadium. On Saturday, Feb. 10 Pacific will host Whitworth at 5 p.m. and on Sunday, Feb. 11 will host Lewis & Clark at 2 p.m. and Whitman at 5 p.m.
