LOS ANGELES – Freshman Matt Bywater tossed seven shutout innings and the #6 Pepperdine baseball team pounded out 15 hits in a 10-1 victory over Loyola Marymount on Sunday afternoon at Page Stadium in Los Angeles.

 

Pepperdine improved to 25-13 (8-3 WCC), while LMU dropped to 19-20 (5-7 WCC), The Waves earned the series win over the Lions by taking two of three contests.

 

Pepperdine got on the board in the second inning on Chase d'Arnaud’s (Long Beach, Calif./Los Alamitos HS) solo homer, his seventh of the season, to put the Waves on top 1-0. The Waves put together a four-run rally in the third, all with two outs, as David Harris (Glendora, Calif./Santa Barbara CC) doubled, Eric Thames (San Jose, Calif./West Valley JC/Bellarmine Prep) was intentionally walked and Matt Aidem (Valencia, Calif./UC Santa Barbara/Valencia HS) also walked to load the bases. Trent Diedrich (Fresno, Calif./Bullard HS) then singled home Harris, d’Arnaud walked to plate Thames and Ryan Heroy (Henderson, Nev./Green Valley HS) registered a two-run double to give the Waves a 5-0 lead.

 

The Waves added onto their lead in the fourth on Aidem’s RBI double to extend the Pepperdine lead to 6-0. Bryce Mendonca (San Leandro, Calif./Chabot JC) tacked on another run in the fifth on an RBI single to make it a 7-0 game in favor of the Waves.

 

Heroy pushed two more runs across with a two-run single in the sixth to extend the Waves’ lead to 9-0 and Thames added an RBI groundout in the seventh to push Pepperdine’s lead to 10-0.

 

Bywater kept the Lions’ hitters in check throughout his seven inning performance, as he allowed only four hits and two walks. The Lions ended the Waves’ shutout bid with an RBI single in the ninth to make it a 10-1 contest before Tyler Hess (Alamo, Calif./De La Salle HS) induced a groundout to seal the Waves’ win.

 

Bywater earned his team-leading sixth win of the season, while LMU starter Lee Roberts incurred the loss.

 

Mendonca led the Waves with a 4-for-6 performance, d’Arnaud notched three hits and two RBI, and Heroy notched two hits and four RBI. Angelo Songco and Kyle Spraker each tallied two hits for LMU.

 

The Waves are off until Tuesday, Apr. 29, when they will host UCLA at 3 p.m. at Eddy D. Field Stadium.