After losing ten of thirteen games Pepperdine’s baseball proved themselves winning four straight this past week. The Waves swept the Chanticleers of Coastal Carolina previously ranked No. 23 nationally this past weekend. They continued the winning streak on Tuesday beating Cal Poly in a very close matchup.
On Friday March 18th the Waves were in a critical position. They had lost four straight including a three game sweep by Louisville also nationally ranked. With the help of an expert pitching squad they turned the negative momentum into a win against CCU.
Friday’s game proved to be a pitching duel between Pepperdine’s own John Moscot and Anthony Meo of Coastal Carolina. Both threw over 100 pitches and pitched 8 1/3 and 7 2/3 innings respectively.
The score stood at 0-0 until the bottom of the 8th inning when Chris Amezquita hit a double to deep left. This set up an RBI opportunity for Brian Humphries whose would-be third out ground ball scored Amezquita when second baseman Tommy La Stella committed a critical error.
Going into the 9th the atmosphere was tense as Pepperdine hoped to hold CCU scoreless and win the game. Unfortunately La Stella amended for his previous mistake by scoring on a fly ball out to left field. The deadlocked 1-1 score would hold well into extra innings as the Waves would not be able to record the win until the 11th inning.
In the 11th inning the Waves worked as a team to score the final run. After Humphries hit a single a series of CCU mistakes and Pepperdine successes led to the bases-loaded opportunity for shortstop Zach Vincej who batted in the winning run.
Coach Steve Rodriguez was very pleased with the outcome telling PepperdineSports.com that the team “Played some of our best baseball of the season today.” He also remarked on Moscot’s pitching successes: “Jon was phenomenal today [against] a great team in Coastal Carolina.”
The rest of the weekend followed the same pattern of outstanding pitching and Waves victories. Sunday’s game was preemptively moved to Saturday (as a doubleheader) due to impending inclement weather.
Waves pitching held the Chanticleers to a combined two runs over the doubleheader with freshman Matt Maurer going seven innings with one earned run and junior Aaron Gates pitching eight innings with one earned run. On the offensive side Joe Sever and Brian Humphries carried the Waves both with four hits between the two Saturday afternoon games. Pepperdine won respectively 2-1 and 7-1.
The Waves had a few days without a game following the Coastal Carolina series but went right back to work Tuesday against the Mustangs of Cal Poly.
For the first half of Tuesday’s game the Mustangs seemed to be in control. They scored two runs right out of the gates on a quick three hits in the first inning. Trouble brewed in the innings that followed but the Waves were able to turn a double play in both the second and the third innings to hold back any more runs.
The highlight of the game came in the seventh inning when the Pepperdine offense exploded to score three runs and take the 4-3 lead. One run scored on a wild throw leaving two runners on base. Senior Harrison Kain had the big hit of the game—a drive that just cleared the infield allowed both runners (Vincej and Torrey Jacobey) to score. One more Pepperdine run in the following inning clinched the 5-3 win.
The Waves are on a hot streak as they head into the final games of their 12 game homestand. The University of Dayton (OH) Flyers come to town this weekend for a three game series beginning with Friday afternoon’s game at 3p.m.
After this weekend the Waves will begin traveling again venturing as far north as Portland and as far south as San Diego during the remainder of the regular season.