May 20, 2010
FRIDAY'S GAME: Is game one of a three-game series vs. No. 19 and first-place San Diego and the second of four the Waves will play this week (L, 8-9 at Cal Poly) ... Waves are 10-9 at home ... 18-17 during the day ... 8-7 vs. WCC opponents [Santa Clara (1-2), Gonzaga (2-1), Portland (0-3), Saint Mary's (3-0), LMU (2-1)] ... 3-8 on Fridays and 14-16 during weekend contests.
WAVES VS. TOREROS: Pepperdine is 117-63 all-time vs. San Diego ... Are 53-24 vs. the Toreros at Eddy D. Field Stadium ... 64-39 at USD's Cunningham Stadium and neutral sites ... Were swept by the Toreros on the road last season, losing by scores of 8-6, 4-0 and 9-3, which marked their first time being swept by San Diego in a regular-season series since 2007 (0-3) ... Have not captured a series victory since 2006 (2-1) ... Pepperdine is 5-15 vs. San Diego under the direction of head coach Steve Rodriguez ... Are 24-26 against the Toreros since 1999 ... Beat USD nine of 12 times between the 1999 and 2000 seasons.
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS:
Friday - Matt Bywater, lhp (4-5, 2.55) vs. Kyle Blair, rhp (7-3, 2.87) - 3 p.m./Wave Casts
Saturday - Cole Cook, rhp (4-5, 3.09) vs. Sammy Solis, lhp (8-1, 2.49) - 1 p.m./Wave Casts
Sunday - Robert Dickmann, lhp (7-4, 5.08) vs. AJ Griffin, rhp (6-3, 4.96) - 1 p.m./Wave Casts
SOUND + VISION: Subscribers to "Wave Casts" can catch all Pepperdine baseball home games and selected road games on the internet at www.pepperdinesports.com, including next Tuesday night's game Long Beach State ... Go to the Pepperdine Athletics website and look for the Wave Casts link ... An annual pass costs $69.95 and monthly subscriptions are also available ... Live statistics will be available for all home matches free of charge, and links are provided to the home team's website when the Waves are on the road.
LITTLE LEAGUE SUNDAYS: Little League players will receive free admission when they wear their uniform to this Sunday's home baseball game vs. San Diego (May 23) or next week's season finale vs. San Francisco (May 30) ... Additional promotions include a postgame running of the bases, in-game Bingo prize drawings, free Pepperdine baseball posters, junior Waves announcers and an autograph session.
ALL THINGS MUST PASS: With only seven games remaining on the 2010 schedule, the 20-27 Waves will not be able to extend their streak of 30-win seasons to year No. 33 ... This streak, which began when Jimmy Carter was still President of the United States in the spring of 1978, is currently the fifth-longest in NCAA history behind only Arizona State (48 years +), Miami (40+), Clemson and Cal State Fullerton (36+) ... Ohio State ranks one spot behind the Waves with 22 consecutive 30-win seasons ... This era in Pepperdine baseball encompassed one national championship, two trips to the college world series, 13 40-win campaigns, 21 postseason appearances and a pair of 50-win seasons in 1979 and 1985.
ODDS AND ENDS: Random notes from Tuesday's 9-8 loss at Cal Poly ... Pepperdine turned its first triple play in more than a decade after Bobby Croker lined into a 6-4 triple killing with runners at first and second in the fifth inning ... Rick Hirtensteiner, who has served as an assistant coach since 1998 and was a player for the Waves from 1986-89, said it was the first triple play he's ever seen turned by one of his teams ... The search continues, however, for the last Pepperdine triple play prior to Tuesday's ... Redshirt sophomore Miles Silverstein tied a Pepperdine individual game record with 11 former Waves after clubbing three doubles vs. the Mustangs ... The last Wave to rip three two-baggers in one game was Matt Aidem in 2008 at Saint Mary's ... Sophomore Nate Johnson hit his third home run in as many games in the third inning ... He is the first Wave to homer in three straight games since Eric Thames did it at home against Columbia on March 8 and 9 of 2008.
BYWATER AMONG THE BEST: Junior Matt Bywater is ranked among the NCAA leaders in five pitching categories, including earned-run average (37th, 2.55) and strikeouts (71) as well as strikeouts (7.9), hits (7.9) and walks (2.6) allowed per nine innings ... And his 18.0 inning scoreless streak that took place earlier this season from March 27 - April 16 currently ranks as the 12th longest in the nation.
WAVES AMONG THE WCC LEADERS: As a team Pepperdine ranks second with a .971 fielding percentage ... Junior Matt Bywater is first with three shutouts, tied for first with four complete games, third with a 2.55 ERA and .242 opponents batting average and ninth with 81.1 innings pitched and 71 strikeouts ... Redshirt sophomore Cole Cook is tied for first with four complete games, tied for third with one shutout, fifth with a 3.09 ERA, fourth with 87. 1 innings pitched, tied for seventh with 76 strikeouts and ninth with a .267 opponents batting average ... Senior Robert Dickmann is tied for fourth with seven wins and two complete games and ranks seventh with 83.1 innings pitched ... Offensively, sophomore Nate Johnson is seventh with nine home runs ... Freshman Joe Sever is tied for seventh with nine stolen bases ... Senior Ryan Heroy is tied for sixth with teammate senior Colin Rooney with 24 walks.
HUMPHRIES AGAIN NAMED WCC CO-PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Sophomore Brian Humphries' hot bat has resulted in his second share of the WCC's Player of the Week award in as many weeks ... He is the first Wave to receive this honor twice in one season since Eric Thames won it on March 10 and April 14 of 2008 and the first to collect it in consecutive weeks since G.J. Raymundo picked it up on Feb. 23 and March 3 of 1999 ... Humphries batted .417 this past week with six runs, three doubles, a triple and a team-high eight RBI as he extended his career-long hitting streak to 11 games.
STREAK STOPPED: Freshman Joe Sever's 14-game hitting streak reached its conclusion following an 0-for-4 night with a walk Tuesday in a 9-8 loss at Cal Poly ... Sever's streak was the second longest on the team over the past two years, behind only Trent Diedrich's 16-game streak that lasted through most of 2009's non-conference campaign ... Against the Mustangs, Sever twice flied out to right, grounded out to first and struck out in his final at-bat in the eighth ... Sever raised his batting average more than 40 points (.273 to .314) since the start of this streak complete with six multi-hit outings ... He is tied for second on the team with 16 multi-hit games and is the only Wave this season to produce five hits in one game (2/21 vs. Oregon).
20/200: If senior Ryan Heroy can collect seven hits over his last seven games, he will become just the 11th Wave in program history to produce 20 career home runs and 200 career hits ... Heroy slammed home run No. 20 last Wednesday in the second inning vs. Cal State Fullerton ... His 193 career base hits currently rank him 36th on Pepperdine's all-time list and his 20 round-trippers tie him for 13th with former professionals David Matranga and Andy Stankiewicz ... Current Texas Ranger farmhand Chad Tracy in 2006 was the most recent Wave to reach 20 home runs and 200 hits.
SEEING DOUBLE: Pepperdine lifted its season doubles total to 93 Tuesday with four two-baggers against Cal Poly ... The Waves have hit 30 doubles over their last nine games, including nine through all three games of the Loyola Marymount series, plus three in a 5-4 win last Tuesday vs. UC Santa Barbara, and two in a loss last Wednesday to No. 10 Cal State Fullerton ... Last year's club finished with 87 doubles ... The team season record of 150 was set in 1999.
WAVES IN THE STANDINGS (91): Have spent the following days alone or tied at each position in the West Coast Conference standings: FIRST - 0, SECOND - 8, THIRD - 13, FOURTH - 13, FIFTH - 14, SIXTH - 1, SEVENTH - 0, EIGHTH - 0 ... Have spent 2 days above, 4 days at and 85 days below .500 this season ... Began their year 1.5 games behind Portland and in a six-way tie for second place after the Pilots swept a three-game series at Santa Clara on the weekend of April 2 ... Finished tied for third last year with San Francisco at 12-9 ... Since placing fifth in 1983, the Waves have finished first 14 times, second place 10 times and third on two occasions.
THE HEAD COACH: Steve Rodriguez is in his seventh season as the head coach of Pepperdine Baseball and owns an all-time record of 237-168 (.585) ... Is four victories away from tying Andy Lopez for the fourth most wins in Pepperdine history with 241 and should pass Frank Sanchez (257) and John Scolinos (263) for third and second-place on the all-time list in 2011 ... Managed his 400th game as the Waves' head coach on May 11 vs. UCSB ... Only Dave Gorrie (611), Scolinos (482) and Sanchez (418) have managed more games than Rodriguez (401) while wearing the Pepperdine uniform ... Has guided his clubs to three West Coast Conference titles and five NCAA Regional appearances ... Served as an assistant coach under Sanchez from 2000 to 2003 ... Played second base for Lopez on Pepperdine's 1992 national championship team ... Named Top Chef at the second annual Southern California Baseball Coaches Cooking Challenge hosted by ESPN Zone in Anaheim in late January.
WAVES ON THE ROAD (9-17, .346): Won their second straight series at Loyola Marymount's Page Stadium this past weekend and finished the road portion of their conference schedule at 8-4 (1-2 at Santa Clara, 2-1 at Gonzaga, 3-0 at Saint Mary's, 2-1 at Loyola Marymount) ... Pepperdine's eight road victories vs. WCC opponents were its most since 2006 when it won nine of 12 away from Eddy D. Field Stadium ... Their sweep at Saint Mary's marked the first time Pepperdine had won three-straight road games since Feb. 25-28, 2009 (at USC and UC Davis) ... Was also the Waves first sweep of a conference opponent on the road since taking all three from Portland in May of 2007 ... Guaranteed themselves a fourth-straight losing season on the road following a 12-5 loss at Fullerton on April 20 ... Have claimed just four winning seasons on the road over the past decade.
WAVES AT EDDY D. FIELD STADIUM (10-9, .526): Lost 10-7 Wednesday to No. 10 Cal State Fullerton, snapping a two-game home winning streak against Big West opponents ... Finished the year 5-2 vs. Big West teams at Field Stadium ... Finished year's longest homestand from 4/23 to 5/12 at 1-4 (.200) [0-3 vs. Portland, 0-1 vs. UCLA, 1-0 vs. Long Beach State], which was their worst of the season ... The Waves have completed 37 seasons at Eddy D. Field Stadium, where they own an all-time record of 803-312-12 (.718) ... Have not experienced a losing season at home since 1973, their inaugural year on the Malibu Campus ... Since then have posted 36 consecutive win-loss records of .500 or better ... This stretch includes 31 seasons of posting a winning percentage of .600 or better ... 12 years above .700 ... 7 seasons above .800, including the 1992 campaign in which the Waves finished 24-1-1 (.942).
ABOUT PEPPERDINE: Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won a total of nine NCAA championships in five different men's sports - one of just 14 schools to have accomplished this feat. Of the 14, Pepperdine is the only non-BCS school and has by far the smallest enrollment. The majority of Pepperdine's teams are ranked nationally year after year and compete for conference and national titles.
