Pepperdine and Portland Box Score (April 23, 2010) 
MALIBU, Calif. - Two eighth-inning errors led to a pair of unearned runs, helping Portland complete its 8-6 come-from-behind victory over Pepperdine Friday afternoon at Eddy D. Field Stadium.
The first-place Pilots rallied from three down in the sixth to tie the game at 4-4, and came back again from down one in the eighth to improve their overall record to 25-9 and 9-1 vs. the West Coast Conference. The Waves, meanwhile, dropped to 13-20 overall and 3-3 against the league.
After pitching a scoreless seventh inning and being six outs away from victory, Pepperdine junior starter Matt Bywater (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks HS) watched the first two Pilots reach via errors to begin the eighth.
Leadoff hitter Kris Kauppila was called safe at first when freshman shortstop's Zachary Vincej (Saugus, Calif./Saugus HS) throw bounced in the dirt, and then Bywater had trouble scooping up Riley Henricks attempted sacrifice bunt.
Both runners advanced a base on C.J. Cullen's sacrifice and scored on Beau Fraser's go-ahead single down the left-field line. Fraser finished the game two-for-three with four RBI, and in his previous at-bat smashed a two-run home run over the wall in left-center field.
The Pilots tacked on two insurance runs in the ninth; including a solo shot by Matt Mardesich and RBI single off the bat of Cullen, which gave reliever Chris Dennis enough cushion as the Waves scraped together one run before leaving the bases loaded to end the game.
The save was Dennis' tenth of the year and made a winner out of reliever Ed Wakefield, who struck out the only batter he faced with two outs in the seventh.
At the start of the game, it appeared that the Waves would not be able to generate much offense, if any, against Portland's Zach Varce. The ace Pilot struck out six of the first seven batters he faced, but sophomore outfielder Ryan Van Amburg (Campbell, Calif./St. Francis HS) seemingly changed Pepperdine's fortunes with one big swing of the bat that tied the game at 1-1 in the third.
The Waves continued to hit Varce over the next three frames, scoring four runs on seven hits and two walks, but they could never produce that one big hit to put the game out of reach.
Pepperdine broke the 1-1 tie in the fourth on junior Floyd Given's (Rohnert Park, Calif./Rancho Cotate HS) two-run single and Vincej later gave Pepperdine a 4-1 lead in the fifth after scoring on a wild pitch.
In the sixth with the score knotted at 4-4, the Waves left the bases loaded a first time after scoring one run on Given's RBI double. Varce walked two batters following Given's hit, but struck out Van Amburg for the second out and got junior Harrison Kain (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks HS) to end the inning on a fly out.
Varce finished the game with 10 strikeouts.
Freshman Joe Sever (San Jose, Calif./Bellarmine College Prep) drove in Pepperdine's final run on an infield single that plated sophomore Nate Johnson (Camarillo, Calif./Camarillo HS), who tied a career high with three runs scored.
As a team, Pepperdine collected 12 hits and have posted 10 hits or more over its last six games.
The Waves and Pilots resume their three-game series Saturday at 1 p.m. Redshirt sophomore and defending WCC Pitcher of the Week Cole Cook (Los Angeles, Calif./Palisades Charter) will take the hill for Pepperdine and oppose undefeated Portland starter Kyle Kraus (7-0).
Portland 8, Pepperdine 6 (Apr 23, 2010 at Malibu, Calif.)
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Portland............ 001 003 022 - 8 9 1 (25-9, 9-1)
Pepperdine.......... 001 211 001 - 6 12 2 (13-20, 3-3)
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Pitchers: Portland - VARCE, Zach; BRYNTESON, Keeler(7); BUNDA, J.R.(7); WAKEFIELD, Ed(7);
DENNIS, Chris(8) and GALE, Rocky. Pepperdine - Bywater, Matt; INMAN, Keven(8) and Johnson, Nate
Win-WAKEFIELD, Ed(2-1) Save-DENNIS, Chris(10) Loss-BYWATER, Matt(3-5) T-2:56 A-251
HR POR - FRASER, Beau (6); MARDESICH, Matt (4).
HR PEP - Van Amburg, Ryan (2).
Weather: 64, Mostly Sunny
BUNDA, J faced 1 batter in the 7th.
