Pepperdine and UC Santa Barbara Box Score (May 11, 2010) 
MALIBU, Calif. - It was a game of firsts in Pepperdine's 5-4 win over UC Santa Barbara Tuesday afternoon at Eddy D. Field Stadium. Freshman reliever Jordan Luvisi (Scottsdale, Ariz./Notre Dame Preparatory) won his first game, redshirt freshman Ricky Villarreal (Edinburg, Texas/Edinburg HS) sealed his first save, and redshirt sophomore Miles Silverstein (Bell Canyon, Calif./Calabasas HS) hit his first home run of 2010 - a two-run shot in the sixth inning that served as the game-winning blast.
The win was Pepperdine's fourth in-a-row and raised its record to 18-24, while the Gauchos dropped to three games under .500 at 20-23. Pepperdine and UCSB split its two-game season series at one game apiece.
Silverstein's home run was his first since May 16 of last year - a span of 118 at-bats - but got Nick Loredo's pitch right where he wanted it and tattooed it over the wall in left-center field to break a 3-3 tie.
"I'm not trying to hit home runs only to hit the ball hard but there's no better feeling in baseball," Silverstein said. "I was looking for a ball up in the zone as they had been throwing off speed to me all game, and once I got ahead in the count he (Loredo) threw me a letter-high change up and I was able to knock it out of the park."
Silverstein's shot made a winner of Luvisi, who not only picked up his first career victory but also established career highs with three innings pitched and four strikeouts. Luvisi left runners stranded on base in his first two frames of work but was tagged for one run in the eighth when Sean Williams scored on Brett Wheeler's sacrifice fly to right field.
After tossing 60 pitches, Luvisi was relieved by Pepperdine's potential newfound closer in Villarreal, who retired the side in order with two strikeouts. He struck out the Gauchos' No. 3 batter Shane Arslan to end the contest.
The hard-throwing Villarreal has appeared in three games since the calendar rolled over to May, totaling 7.2 innings of work and is grateful for opportunity to finish games.
"It's good to be the guy called on in these types of situations," he said. "I wasn't pitching many innings at the start of the season, but now I'm getting into more games as a reliever when there's a lot of adrenaline flowing through me. I'm feeling a lot better in this role."
Sophomore Aaron Gates (Villa Park, Calif./Orange Lutheran HS) started for the Waves and was one pitch away from perhaps earning his third victory of the year, but Gaucho cleanup hitter Mark Haddow tied the game at 3-3 on his fifth home run of the season that came on a 3-2 pitch with two outs in the fifth. Sophomore Brian Humphries (El Cajon, Calif./Granite Hills HS) gave chase to the warning track in right-center field before stopping to watch it clear the wall.
Gates allowed the game's first run in the third after Gunnar Terhune led off with a triple that skipped under the glove of a diving Floyd Given (Rohnert Park, Calif./Rancho Cotate HS) in right field and then scored on Derek Eligio's ground ball to second.
Gates also escaped out of a pair of predicaments in the first and fourth innings. In the first, Gates walked the bases loaded with two outs before getting Williams to bounce out to second, and in the fourth, Bryce Tafelski grounded out to third baseman Colin Rooney (Yorba Linda, Calif./Esperanza HS) with runners at the corners.
Pepperdine grabbed its first lead with three runs in the third inning. Humphries doubled in sophomore Cody Yount (Paradise Valley, Calif./Chaparral HS) and freshman Zachary Vincej (Saugus, Calif./Saugus HS) to give the Waves a 2-1 lead, and then he scored two batters later on a wild pitch by starter Greg Davis.
Humphries, who is currently riding a season-high seven-game hitting streak, has six doubles and seven RBI over the last week. Freshman Joe Sever (San Jose, Calif./Bellarmine College Preparatory) also extended his hitting streak to 10 games after singling in his fourth and final at-bat in the eighth inning, and Yount's two-hit game was the first of his career.
Pepperdine returns to the field Wednesday for a 3 p.m. home game vs. No. 10 Cal State Fullerton. Junior Keven Inman (Bakersfield, Calif./Garces HS) will take the hill for the first time since pitching a complete-game shutout last week vs. Long Beach State.
# # #
Pepperdine 5, UC Santa Barbara 4 (May 11, 2010 at Malibu, Calif.)
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UC Santa Barbara.... 001 020 010 - 4 7 1 (20-23)
Pepperdine.......... 003 002 00X - 5 9 0 (18-24)
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Pitchers: UC Santa Barbara - Davis, G.; Loredo, N.(4); Whalen, C.(7); Brady, M.(8);
Capito, N.(8) and Tafelski, B.. Pepperdine - Gates, Aaron; LUVISI, Jordan(6);
VILLARREAL, Ricky(9) and Johnson, Nate.
Win-LUVISI, Jordan(1-0) Save-VILLARREAL, Ricky(1) Loss-Loredo, N.(0-3) T-2:53 A-155
HR UCSB - Haddow, M. (5).
HR PEP - Silverstein, Miles (1).
Weather: 66, Sunny, 20 mph wind WNW
