Nothing seems to be going right for the Waves who opened West Coast Conference play as victims of a three-game sweep to rival San Diego at Cunningham Stadium. After losses to the Toreros on Friday Saturday and Sunday Pepperdine (16-11 0-3 WCC) has dropped five straight games.
With Pepperdine ace senior Nathan Newman taking the mound on Friday the match-up looked to be a favorable one for the Waves. But the Toreros (19-10 3-0 WCC) had other plans and jumped all over Newman with eight runs in the first four innings to take an 8-0 lead.
“[Newman] had a very uncharacteristic day for him said Head Coach Steve Rodriguez. There were a couple pitches he didn’t really have good command of that he normally has phenomenal command of. … He’s been a great pitcher for us for the past couple years; expecting a pitcher to come out and be dead-on every game is unrealistic.”
Pepperdine finally got on the board in the sixth on back-to-back RBI singles by senior second baseman Denny Duron and senior right fielder Nate Simon.
The Waves continued their comeback attempt in the top of the seventh scoring four runs to chase San Diego starter Kyle Blair out of the game. With the bases loaded and nobody out Blair tried to pick off freshman designated hitter Cody Yount from second. However his throw sailed into center field allowing freshman first baseman Nate Johnson to score from third. An RBI groundout sandwiched between two one-run singles plated three more and Pepperdine was suddenly within two runs at 8-6.
But the Waves could not get any closer than that as Toreros reliever A.J. Griffin shut them down during the game’s final two innings and San Diego escaped with the 8-6 victory.
Newman settled down after the fourth inning and pitched through the sixth but he exited the game after tossing easily his worst outing of 2009. He allowed eight earned runs on 10 hits while striking out three to suffer the loss (3-2).
On Saturday Pepperdine received a complete game two-hitter from redshirt freshman and starter Cole Cook. Unfortunately the bats could not stay hot and the Waves finished the day on the losing side of a 4-0 shutout.
A two-run double off the bat of left fielder Steven Chatwood in the fifth proved to be the game-winning hit for San Diego.Matt Thomson Cook’s opponent was even better than the Pepperdine starter as he struck out 10 Waves en route to a two-hit shutout. Cook (4-1) took his first loss of the year despite pitching a season-high eight innings.
With the momentum completely on the Toreros’ side Pepperdine hoped to salvage a win Sunday in the final game of the series. The day started hopeful for the Waves as Simon belted a two-run home run in the top of the first to give his team an early 2-0 lead. The Waves went up 3-1 in the second inning on freshman center fielder Brian Humphries’ RBI single. However the offense could not push any runs across the plate after the second inning.
“We were getting hits but they weren’t timely said redshirt freshman infielder Miles Silverstein. We weren’t able to capitalize with runners in scoring position. We had a lot of hits but we didn’t score a lot of runs.”
San Diego did not waste any time jumping back into the lead. They scored two runs in the bottom of the second to tie the game at 3. Then with the bases full of Toreros in the fourth Pepperdine sophomore reliever Tyler Hess plunked third baseman Victor Sanchez to bring in the go-ahead run.
In the eighth the Toreros tagged Waves senior closer Nick Gaudi for five runs to break the game open. Pepperdine did not put up much of a fight in the ninth and San Diego ran away with the 9-3 victory.
The Toreros may have made a statement to the Waves by sweeping them in the first series of conference play. Before the season a WCC coaches poll picked the two teams to finish neck-and-neck for the top spot in the conference. In 2007 San Diego claimed the conference crown after pounding the Waves 10-1 and 12-4 in the WCC Championship Series.
But Rodriguez said he believes his team is close to reclaiming the winning drive they had before the losing streak.
“We’re just waiting for that one offensive punch where we have guys in scoring position and one hitter rails a ball into the gap Rodriguez said. We’re really just one hit away from getting back on track.”
Pepperdine will look to regroup when conference play continues Friday against Gonzaga in the first of a three-game series at Eddy D. Field Stadium. The first pitch Friday is scheduled for 3 p.m. and the games on Saturday and Sunday will both begin at 1 p.m.
“We’re not used to losing like that especially five in a row in one week Silverstein said. The morale was down after the weekend … but we’re trying to stay positive and look forward because you can’t be living in the past especially in baseball because it’s always about the next day.”