For the second straight home game senior outfielder Nate Simon was part of late-inning Pepperdine heroics. This time it was Simon providing the walk-off shot as he launched a 3-1 pitch over the left centerfield wall in the bottom of the 10th to seal a 3-2 victory for the Waves over Cal State Northridge on Sunday afternoon at Eddy D. Field Stadium.
The Waves (2-1) originally took the lead in the fourth inning when junior catcher Trent Diedrch doubled to the wall in left center to drive in senior first baseman Ryan Heroy from second.
In the sixth Northridge (1-2) tied the game at 1 on a single up the middle by second baseman Justin DeMarco.
Pepperdine went back on top in the seventh. With one out junior second baseman Bryce Mendonca doubled. Northridge then plunked senior third baseman Denny Duron the hero of Friday’s game before giving up a single to left fielder David Harris for the go-ahead run.
Senior reliever Nick Gaudi held the Matadors down in the top of the eighth despite surrendering a lead-off double to infielder Ryan Pienda and watching him advance to third on a passed ball. Gaudi then struck out the next batter and after walking DeMarco induced a lineout and struck out pinch-hitter CJ Belanger on a high heater to escape the inning unscathed.
However Gaudi was not so lucky in the top of the ninth as he gave up a 1-out RBI single to Northridge catcher John Parham knotting the score at 2.
This paved the way for Simon’s 10th-inning home run his third big fly of the young season.
Waves’ starter senior Robert Dickmann had a solid outing tossing 5-plus innings of 1-run baseball while striking out five Matadors but Gaudi was credited with the win.
“Any time you can win a weekend series against anybody everybody’s always happy said Waves’ Head Coach Steve Rodriguez. It was great to see some of our seniors really step up this weekend and really play well.”
Pepperdine continues its season Wednesday on the road against regional rival USC.