After our men’s baseball showed great effort and sportsmanship this weekend, our Tigers encountered a roller coaster of wins and loses after taking on UNLV and Gonzaga at our own Klein Family Field. On Thursday, Feb. 21, UNLV posted a 9-1 win over Pacific in the opening game of the Pacific Baseball Invitational. Senior DH Tyger Pederson went 1-3 with an RBI for the Tigers.

     Challenging UNLV again for Friday’s game, junior Cory Popham hurled a complete-game shutout and senior Jacob Goulder added a two-run single as the Pacific baseball team defeated UNLV 3-0. At Saturday’s game, the Tigers fell to Gonzaga, 9-8 with the Bulldogs posting the last of seven lead changes in the ballgame. Senior Dustin Torchio was 2-4 with a pair of RBI.

     Bringing the weekend to an close after one heck of a game, Sunday, Feb. 24 consisted of a six-run seventh inning that propelled Pacific to a 9-3 win over Gonzaga as the Tigers scored eight unanswered runs. Freshman Gio Brusa drove in five, including a bases-clearing double and Pederson drilled an impressive two-run home run.

     Brusa put the Tigers’ on the board in the third with an RBI groundout to bring home freshman J.J Wagner, who led off the inning with a double off Gonzaga starter Derek Callahan. Sophomore Michael Benson tossed a total of 7.2 innings allowing two earned runs to pick up the win to move to 2-0 on the year.

     The Tigers are now 3-4 in the early season, while Gonzaga falls to 4-4. The Tigers and the Bulldogs will now both head to Surprise, Ariz., for the Coca Cola Sunrise Classic, joining Arizona State and Arkansas in the tournament field. Pacific opens with Arizona State on March 1 at Surprise Stadium. Game time is scheduled for 3 p.m. with the game taking place after the Cincinnati Reds and Kansas City Royals spring training game at 12:05 p.m.