What began as a pitcher’s duel between Pepperdine sophomore starter Matt Bywater and his UCLA counterpart freshman Trevor Bauer resulted in a 7-2 victory for the Bruins on Wednesday afternoon at Eddy D. Field Stadium. The loss was the second in a row for the No.-12 Waves (16-8) and capped off an eight-game homestand.
The game opened with dominate pitching from both Bywater and Bauer who matched each other almost pitch for pitch during the first three innings. After surrendering a double to Bruins leadoff hitter Blair Dunlap in the top of the first Bywater retired nine of the next 10 batters he faced racking up a trio of strikeouts in the process. Entering the fourth inning Bauer had allowed just two Waves to reach base.
A solo home run by UCLA (8-13) broke the scoreless tie in the top of the fourth. With two outs first baseman Cody Decker made contact with a 2-2 offering from Bywater. The ball hung in the air for a while but continued to carry until it finally made its way over the right field wall for a 1-0 Bruins lead. Bywater then struck out designated hitter Chris Amezquita to retire the side. Pepperdine returned the favor in the bottom of the fourth as freshman first baseman Aaron Gates stepped to the plate and powered a 1-1 fastball to right field for his second big fly of the season.
“I struck out on a fastball my first at-bat so he was probably trying to come back with the same pitch Gates said. He just didn’t execute it.”
But the Bruins answered with two runs in the top of the fifth. Left fielder Gabe Cohen led off the inning with a home run and Amezquita followed with a triple over the head of freshman center fielder Brian Humphries. Amezquita scored on shortstop Niko Gallego’s RBI groundout and UCLA led 3-1.
UCLA’s bats continued to heating up in the top of the sixth. Bywater allowed another lead-off home run a line drive shot to left field off the bat of third baseman Casey Haerther.
“They had the three home runs so that really put a damper on things Bywater said. I felt like I should have been able to come back from those but they just kept putting hits together.”
Decker who homered in his previous at-bat reached first on a bunt single to third base. Amezquita then singled to put men on first and second with no outs. After advancing to second and third on a ground out Decker and Amezquita came around to score on catcher Gino Aielli’s two-run single.
The Waves inched closer in their half of the sixth when junior third baseman Colin Rooney hit the game’s fifth solo home run a monster of a shot over the left field fence.
Bywater left the game after the sixth inning having given up six earned runs on nine hits while striking out six. His replacement sophomore Tyler Hess allowed UCLA’s seventh and final run of the game on two-out RBI single to Amezquita.
The Waves did not put up a fight after that point and they were unable to put a single runner on base in the final three innings of the game. Bauer exited the game after tossing eight innings of 2-run baseball with eight strikeouts.
Waves junior catcher Trent Diedrich said Bauer kept the Pepperdine bats off-balance with a solid command of his three pitches.
“He was able to pretty much throw a lot of his pitches for strikes Diedrich said. He had a pretty good command of all three of his pitches (fastball changeup and slider). So that helped and he was throwing a lot of changeups and sliders in fastball counts.”
In the bottom of the ninth Bruins reliever Gavin Brooks induced three consecutive groundouts to seal the 7-2 victory for UCLA.
With the loss the Waves have hit arguably their first rough spot this season. Pepperdine entered Tuesday having won five of its last six but suffered its most decisive defeat of 2009 a 20-8 loss to Brown (3-18). The team’s pitching has been especially ineffective the past two games. But Diedrich said he is confident the staff which leads the conference in earned run average will be able to bounce back.
“They [the pitchers] caught some teams that were hot offensively Diedrich said. Tuesday was kind of rough … but today wasn’t too bad. They hit a couple home runs on some pitches that were up so I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.”
Conference play begins on Friday for the Waves when they travel south open a three-game set versus defending WCC champion San Diego (16-10).