TACOMA, Wash. – Isaac Lovings (Senior/Beaverton, OR) mashed two home runs on the day, but Pacific dropped the regular season finale when Willamette walked it off in the ninth.
The Boxers finish 28-16 overall in the regular season. Pacific will have their sights set on the regional tournament scheduled for May 19-20.
Lovings hit his 10
th and 11
th home runs of the season on Sunday afternoon, tying the team-high.
Matt Gibbs (Sophomore/Beaverton, OR) launched his first homer of the season while going 2-for-4 with two RBI and a couple runs scored.
Ryan Krout (Senior/Washougal, WA) also smacked a long ball in his 1-for-2 performance, racking up two RBI.
How It Happened
Cole Strober (Senior/Pacific City, OR) reached on an error to start the contest. Another defensive mishap allowed the leadoff hitter to score, giving the Boxers an early lead. However, Willamette answered with four runs on six hits in the bottom of the inning to give themselves a three-run cushion.
Cayden Okada (Freshman/Waipahu, HI) relieved starting pitcher
Derek Eubanks (Senior/Oregon City, OR) in the second inning. The right hander finally stopped the bleeding by retiring six straight hitters to begin his outing.
Back-to-back home runs from Krout and Lovings gave Pacific some life in the fourth. Krout blasted a no-doubter to left and Lovings drove one over the centerfield wall, bringing the Boxers within one.
The Bearcats threatened again in the home half of the inning but
Andrew Thomas (Senior/Escondido, CA) gunned down a runner at the plate to allow his team to escape unscathed.
Pacific tied things up in the fifth when Krout lofted a sacrifice fly to score
Brad Altomare (Senior/San Ramon, CA) but Willamette scored twice in the bottom half of the inning to regain the lead.
The Boxers used the long ball to level the score yet again when Gibbs blasted an opposite-field two-run homer.
Nolan McNeill (Senior/San Tan Valley, AZ) followed by ripping a two-RBI triple in the left-center gap, putting Pacific back out in front.
The back-and-forth contest took another twist when the Bearcats put up another two-spot to tie the score, but Lovings replied by launching his second big fly of the day, a solo shot to give Pacific a one-run advantage.
Walker Matthews (Junior/Carlsbad, CA) drew a bases-loaded walk to make it a two-run lead at the seventh-inning stretch.
Kahi Bisho (Senior/Honolulu, HI) was the next hurler to climb the hill and he cruised through the seventh before running into some trouble in the eighth. Willamette managed to even the score at 10-10 heading into the final frame.
The Bearcats used three straight hits in the bottom of the ninth to walk it off.
By The Numbers
- Krout is five RBI shy of the program record. He currently sits at 154 career RBI, Matt Lengwenus (2000-2003) holds the record at 159.
- Krout is second on the all-time home run list with 30 in his career. Lengwenus holds that record as well, finishing with 42 over his four years at Pacific.
- Krout is five RBI away from breaking the Pacific single-season RBI record. He sits at 53, just four shy of Kurtis Kloke's 57 RBI in 2016.
Up Next
The Boxers will await seeding and placement from the NCAA before they know where they'll be headed for postseason play. The regional tournament is scheduled to start on May 19 or 20.
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