May 24, 2010
TUESDAY'S GAME: Is game three of a three-game season series between Pepperdine and Long Beach State and the first of four contests the Waves will play this week (May 28-30 vs. USF) ... Waves are 10-18 on the road ... 2-10 during night games ... 4-8 on Tuesdays ... 7-11 during midweek contests ... 6-8 vs. the Big West Conference [Cal Poly (0-2), Cal State Fullerton (1-2), Cal State Northridge (2-2), Long Beach State (1-1), UC Irvine (1-0), UC Santa Barbara (1-1)].
WAVES VS. DIRTBAGS: Pepperdine is 59-59-2 all-time vs. Long Beach State ... 22-18-2 at Eddy D. Field Stadium ... 37-41 at Blair Field and neutral sites ... 10-17 vs. the Dirtbags since 1999 and 6-10 under head coach Steve Rodriguez ... Waves snapped a three-game losing streak vs. LBSU following a 4-0 home win on May 5, 2010 ... Dropped a 2-1 decision on Opening Day (Feb. 19) at Blair Field, a place where they have not won a game vs. the Dirtbags since May 2, 2006 (W, 5-1).
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 Tuesday night's game at Long Beach State (May 25) ... 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.
WAVES VS. DONS: Pepperdine is 106-38 all-time vs. San Francisco ... 54-9 at Eddy D. Field Stadium ... 52-29 at Benedetti Diamond and neutral sites ... Lost two of three games at USF in 2009 [L, 1-15; W, 7-6; L, 2-4], which was their first series loss to the Dons since 2000 ... Swept San Francisco last time they faced the Dons at home in 2008, winning 11-2, 11-10 and 8-5 ... Are 32-13 vs. the Dons since 1999 and 17-7 against them with Rodriguez at the helm.
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS:
Tuesday at Long Beach State - Aaron Gates, lhp (2-7, 5.98) or Keven Inman (1-1, 4.56) vs. TBA - 6:30 p.m./Wave Casts
Friday vs. San Francisco - Matt Bywater, lhp (5-5, 2.29) vs. Doug Murray, rhp (8-5, 3.03) - 3 p.m./Wave Casts
Saturday vs. San Francisco - Cole Cook, rhp (4-6, 3.08) vs. Matt Lujan, lhp (6-4, 4.30) - 1 p.m./Wave Casts
Sunday vs. San Francisco - Robert Dickmann, lhp (7-4, 4.88) vs. Matt Hiserman, rhp (1-4, 6.62) -1 p.m./Wave Casts
LITTLE LEAGUE SUNDAYS: Little League players will receive free admission when they wear their uniform to next Sunday's home baseball game 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.
DRAWING A BLANK: Junior Matt Bywater broke the varsity season record for shutouts Friday following a 5-0 blanking of No. 19 San Diego ... His fourth shutout broke a nine-way tie for first place as he surpassed former Pepperdine major leaguers Mike Scott, Mike Fetters, Randy Wolf and Patrick Ahearne ... Jay Adams in 1999 was the last Waves to post three shutouts in a year.
WALK MUCH?: San Diego and Pepperdine exchanged intentional walks in game three of their series, marking the first time all season (through 50 games) that the Waves had either received or issued an intentional pass ... Brian Humphries was intentionally walked by USD starter AJ Griffin in the fourth ... Pepperdine returned the favor in the ninth when reliever Keven Inman walked James Meador ... Both moves paid off as Griffin followed up with two routine outs, and Inman got Tony Strazzara to line into an inning-ending 8-6 double play that was initiated by Humphries.
PITCHER'S BEST FRIEND: The Waves completed seven double plays in their three-game series against San Diego - their most against any one opponent this season ... Pepperdine turned three DPs each in games one and three, tying a season record first established vs. Brown on March 6 ... The Waves have converted 46 twin killings this season, but are still 45 away from tying the all time record of 91 set in 1984 ... Additionally, the triple play Pepperdine spun last Tuesday night at Cal Poly was only the second recorded in team history and first since 1985.
STREAK TALK: With the respective 14 and 11-game hit streaks of Joe Sever and Brian Humphries extinguished last week at Cal Poly, the new clubhouse leaders are Colin Rooney and Zachary Vincej ... With a 1-for-4 game Sunday vs. San Diego, Rooney tied his career best hit streak at nine games, which he accomplished twice previously in 2009 ... His current streak, which began May 11 vs. UCSB, has lifted his average 24 points to .294 and includes five multi-hit games ... Rooney leads all Waves with 20 multi-hit games ... Vincej's career-best six-game hit streak started in game two of last week's LMU series, but sadly he has seen his batting average drop four points from .316 to .312 during this time.
20/200: If senior Ryan Heroy can collect four hits over his last four 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 in the second inning of a 10-7 loss vs. Cal State Fullerton on May 12 ... His 196 career base hits currently rank him 34th 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 ... Heroy enters the final week on a six-game hitting streak and is batting .284.
DOUBLE OR NOTHING: Pepperdine lifted its season doubles total to 99 Sunday with four two-baggers against San Diego ... The Waves have hit 36 doubles over their last 12 games, including six through all three games of the San Diego series, plus four in a 9-8 loss last Tuesday at Cal Poly ... Last year's club finished with 87 doubles ... The team season record of 150 was set in 1999.
WAVES IN THE STANDINGS (95): Have spent the following days alone or tied at each position in the West Coast Conference standings: FIRST - 0, SECOND - 8, THIRD - 13, FOURTH - 17, FIFTH - 14, SIXTH - 1, SEVENTH - 0, EIGHTH - 0 ... Have spent 2 days above, 4 days at and 89 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 238-170 (.583) ... Is three 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 (10-18, .357): Lost a Tuesday night game at Cal Poly, snapping a modest two-game road winning streak ... Waves' 18 road losses are their most since 2004, when they dropped 19 during head coach Steve Rodriguez' first season ... Won their second straight series at Loyola Marymount's Page Stadium to finish 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 (11-11, .500): Dropped two of three games to San Diego this past weekend and are in danger of experiencing their first losing season at home since 1973 unless they win next weekend's series vs. San Francisco ... With a 1-5 record vs. the conference at home this season are guaranteed their first losing conference home record in close to three decades ... Have not experienced a losing season at home since 1973, which was their inaugural year on the Malibu Campus and the last time they posted a losing record vs. WCC opponents ... 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) ... The Waves have completed 37 seasons at Eddy D. Field Stadium, where they own an all-time record of 806-315-12 (.717).
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.
