Davis, Calif. - When Izaak Silva stepped to the plate at Goodwin Field in Fullerton on April 4th, 2014, he carried more than the pressure of one game with him. 

UC Davis had beaten Cal State Fullerton just twice in the nine-year series history between the teams to that point and hadn't gotten past the Titans since April 26, 2008. 

"Any time you go to Fullerton you know it's going to be tough," Silva remembers now. "And since I'd been at Davis, we hadn't had a lot of success down there. But it's not any different than going to say (UC) Irvine or Long Beach (State) necessarily in that they're all such good teams and they've got a really good following of fans that you know it's going to be a tough place to win."

On top of that, it was the first of a three-game series and the Aggies didn't fly to Southern California then. They were facing the No. 18 team in the country having just gotten off a long bus ride to Fullerton the day before. 

"You've kind of got to be mistake-free to win down there," he added. 

Trailing 0-1 entering the top of the eighth inning, Silva wasn't even expecting to play that day as he appeared in 32 of the Aggies' 49 games that season and started just 25. 

But with Harry Stanwyck holding the Titans in check, Silva found himself batting with the game on the line in the eighth after entering at catcher in the bottom of the seventh. 

"Harry pitched a phenomenal game," Silva recalled this week. "Being down one-nothing at that point you're like 'okay, we've done our jobs to this point and we're in the game and anything can go right. We just need to score a couple of runs.' Being down in Fullerton and knowing what they have in the bullpen, winning starts to feel harder. But if you're close, there's always a chance." 

Seth Batty led off the inning with a triple, Adam Young was plunked and Steven Patterson singled in Batty to tie the game. Nick Lynch sacrificed Young and Patterson to third and second respectively before Fullerton brought in Tyler Peitzmeier in relief of Thomas Eshelman. Peitzmeier struck out Spencer Henderson and Koby Gauna struck out Kevin Barker to bring up Silva. 

"I remember going up going 'I've got a chance to at least tie the game, maybe even put us up. You've got to come through here,'" he said. 

After a called strike and a foul out of play to the right, Silva found himself staring at 0-2 with two outs. Determined not to strike out at the very least, Silva took a fastball from Gauna and put it on the infield. 

"I remember I did not hit it well," Silva laughs. "He jammed me inside and it was this 'nubber' between the pitcher and the first baseman. And it was just kind of one of those perfectly placed balls where the first baseman doesn't know whether to come get it and it was hit just a little too hard and to the right for the pitcher to react and get it either. I took off right away and it was that moment lapse in communication between the pitcher and catcher that I made to first."

Young scored on the play and Patterson raced home soon after on an errant throw to first to try to get Silva when no one was covering the bag. 

"I remember thinking when I got to first 'wow what are the odds?'," he said. "Because it's Fullerton and they're coached so disciplined that they don't make many plays like that." 

Stanwyck went on to pitch into the eighth, getting one out before departing after a single by future Major Leaguer J.D. Davis. Zach Stone came in and pitched around a walk to get out of the eighth and then around an error to start the bottom of the ninth to close out the win. 

For Silva and the 2014 Aggies, it was redemption for the previous season when UC Davis hosted the Titans and entered the ninth in the second game of that series with a 2-1 lead but lost 2-4. 

But it also carried over to the 2015 season when with the mystique of the Titans dispelled, the Aggies took game one of a series in Davis 3-2 in the middle of one of the best seasons in the Division I era at UC Davis. Silva went on to hit .320 that 2015 season after taking over the every day job at catcher and was named to the Big West All-Conference First Team. 

"It was so gratifying too because we'd had so many heartache losses," Silva added. "It was nice to get them the way they'd gotten us the previous few years." 

While he remembers his at-bat that day, it's those long bus rides like the one the Aggies had just stepped off and the rides back to the hotel that stick.

"We were on a Zoom meeting with all my friends that I played with and lived with and we just started talking about games and memories that we have from them," he said. "The what-ifs and just the funny moments that happened in little games that you remember. It's funny how often those little moments pop up and Coach Vaughn would always say "You know, you're not going to remember how you win or lose'. We're talking about some of the more important moments from that game but the moment on the bus after I probably remember better than some of that game. It's the camaraderie with your teammates and your friends that you remember the most and have the fondest memories of."

April 13, 2006 - UC Davis stuns No. 1-ranked Cal State Fullerton 2-1

Lukas Kirny hit a solo home run in the second and Michael Potter went 6 1/3 for the win to lead the Aggies to one of the biggest wins in program history in 2006. 

The Titans were ranked No. 1 in the Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, and USA Today Coaches polls at the time and were handed their first loss at home over their previous seven games. 

Potter's win tied hime with Luke Steidlmayer and Steve Brown for most career wins, allowing just three hits to get his 23rd. 

"It's a phenomenal win for the program and in our evolution as we move to Division I," then-UC Davis head coach Rex Peters said that day.      

UC Davis had never beaten a top-ranked NCAA Division I team in any sport before that day. 

Vince DeCoito threw two innings of scoreless ball and Nik Aurora got the last two outs of the ninth to close out the win. 

The Aggies scored the only other run they'd need in the top of the fifth after Ryan Royster singled back to the pitcher with one out in the inning. Royster advanced to second on a groundout by Michael Jacobellis and then came home on a single by Brandon Oliver that was misplayed in right. 

Fullerton got the tying run to second in the bottom of the ninth on a leadoff walk and a sacrifice before Aurora closed the door. 
 

April 15, 1994 - Watts' homer in 10th lifts Aggies to victory 

The UC Davis baseball archives are full of big hits and game winners but when it comes to a list of walk-off home runs, the list begins to shrink. 

One of those belongs to Rich Watts, whose two-run bomb in the bottom of the 10th on April 15, 1994 lifted the Aggies to a 5-3 win over Stanislaus State. 

The win made UC Davis 27-7 and 16-1 in the Northern California Athletic Conference and extended the Aggies' NCAC win streak to 13. 

At the time, Watts was batting near .500 in league games and his game-winner was his team-leading sixth of that season. Bill Inman led off the inning with a single before Watts sent everyone home. 

Mike Prelock went seven innings that day, working around 12 Warriors baserunners to allow just two runs and Brad Martz earned the win in relief, allowing one run on three hits over three innings. 

Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth, Troy Hess got the Aggies going with an RBI single to right that scored John Dietz to get within 2-1. The Warriors went up 3-1 in the top of the eighth before UC Davis came back in the bottom half of the inning. 

Jason Shapiro drew a one-out walk, stole second and stole third around a Chris Walsh walk to put two on. Inman pinch ran for Walsh ahead of Watts' RBI fielder's choice. Shapiro scored on the play but Inman was thrown out at second to bring up Greg Morris with two outs. Morris singled to right to put runners on first and second and Hayward Cook singled in Watts to tie the game at 3-3. 

Inman remained in the game at DH to set up Watt's 10th inning heroics. 

Watts still holds the school record for career batting average at .384 while Shapiro stole a school record 106 bases from 1991-94. 

April 10, 1971 - UC Davis defeats Sonoma State 13-1

The 13 runs UC Davis scored on April 10, 1971 were bettered only four times in the 29 years of games against the Sea Wolves that followed. 

It was the third straight win for the Aggies at the time and came in stretch that saw them win seven of nine games. 

Ross Merritt tossed seven innings of one-run ball, striking out seven and scattering seven hits for the win. 

Clay Sigg went 2-5 with two runs and three RBIs at the top of the order, Rick Hennes 2-3 with three runs at the two spot, Leslie Gardner batted third and went 2-3 with two RBIs and a run scored, Rick Yenovkian batted cleanup went 2-4 with a run and an RBI, John Repetto went 2-3 with a run scored and three RBIs, Denny Holmes hit a two-run home run, Dennis Crandall went 2-3 and scored once, Dennis Pfyl hit a solo homer and scored twice, and Merritt scored once. 

The Aggies racked up seven extra base hits that day with Hnnes, Gardner, Yenovkian and Repetto doubling and Repetto tripling once to go with Holmes and Pfyl's home runs. 

That 1971 team went on to hit .298 as a team for the season.