By Steve Pinkerton
Staff Writer
The outlook is grim for Pepperdine’s baseball as it heads into a three-game series with 8-10 St. Mary’s this weekend.
Pepperdine’s two defeats at the hands of the USC Trojans last weekend brought the Waves’ sluggish season into even sharper focus.
On Saturday, Trojan sophomore reliever Jon Williams, who took over for starter Brent Banister in the third inning, owned the afternoon. After giving up a single to Pepperdine junior Jason Payne in the fourth, not one Pepperdine player reached first base for the rest of the game.
Before Williams took control, the Waves did manage to pull out three runs, but they were not enough to secure a win. USC won 5-3.
Yet Saturday’s Waves looked like the New York Yankees next to the Waves that played on Sunday. Pepperdine senior Kevin Beavers was the first unfortunate pitcher of the day, giving up five runs in the first inning alone.
Waves junior Greg Ramirez took the mound at the start of the second inning to try and patch things up. Four runs later, as that inning came to a close, there was little doubt that Pepperdine would lose yet another weekend of baseball.
In the first two innings the Trojans scored nine runs off of seven hits and cycled through their entire batting order — twice.
Pepperdine junior designated hitter Ty Harper brought a little positive energy to the field for his team, getting four hits and three RBIs. Three more runs, including solo home run shots by sophomore leftfielder Cory Brightwell and freshman catcher Nelson Caraballo, were not enough to beat USC, which won the game 18-6.
Even the jovial hotdog guy at Pepperdine’s Eddy D. Field Stadium looked grim on Sunday. His usual “What can I get for you, young fella?” seemed to fall flat.
The Waves simply haven’t been able to do much this season, even on their own home turf.
Most seasons, Pepperdine defends its home field like a Doberman pinscher. Last year the Waves went 25-6 at home. So far this year, that record is 4-9.
Now Pepperdine needs to focus on a specific goal that once seemed inevitable but may require some serious improvement: winning the West Coast Conference.
The Waves’ only three conference games thus far this season were against Gonzaga, which took the series 2-1. That leaves 27 conference games to go, starting with the St. Mary’s Gaels this weekend.
Last season, Pepperdine won all six of its games with St. Mary’s, scoring a combined 59 runs over the Gaels’ 27.
But with Pepperdine baseball in its current state, fans are wondering whether the Waves can hope to resurrect that success.
“If we don’t sweep the series (with St. Mary’s),” said Waves freshman pitcher Robert Hobbs, “we should be disappointed.”
Sweeping a WCC team would certainly give Pepperdine a boost right now, but the lesser feat of winning the series 2-1 would still give the Waves some much-needed optimism. They could then head into their next WCC series against Santa Clara with an even conference record.
Of course, the season is still young. At St. Mary’s this weekend, the Waves face a kind of turning point. If they lose the series they will drop deeper into their slump; if they win, things may just start looking up.
March 21, 2002