Pepperdine and Long Beach State Box Score (May 5, 2010) 
MALIBU, Calif. - Pepperdine received its ninth complete game of the season from the unlikeliest of sources Wednesday afternoon at Eddy D. Field Stadium as junior Keven Inman (Bakersfield, Calif./Garces HS) blanked Long Beach State 4-0 in what was just his second career start.
The win snapped Pepperdine's five-game losing streak and lifted its record to 14-23, while LBSU dropped to a game under .500 at 20-21. The two schools complete their three-game season series on Tuesday, May 25 at Blair Field.
Inman entered the game with 29 career appearances, a lifetime of no decisions and a 6.80 earned-run average, but rendered all those previous statistics meaningless by scattering six hits and three walks on an economical 97 pitches against a Dirtbag club that had won its last three meetings vs. the Waves. Earlier in the week he joked with Pepperdine pitching coach Jon Strauss about the possibility of pitching a complete game but never truly believed it would happen.
"We were in the bullpen two days ago and he (Strauss) thought five innings would be good enough," Inman said. "I've never pitched that deep (nine innings) in a game before. I think maybe the closest I got was to the sixth or seventh inning."
Inman had never made a start prior to 2010 and in his freshman and sophomore years never pitched more than 10.1 innings in a season, making today's feat all the more remarkable. In his first career start against Brown on March 5 of this year, Inman pitched 5.1 innings, and his longest relief outing - on March 2 vs. UC Irvine - lasted four innings.
"I didn't know what to expect, but I definitely got more than I expected," said Strauss, who was the pitching coach at Long Beach prior to this season. "He was efficient. He threw a lot of strikes, kept the ball down in the zone and had pretty good command of his fastball, which led to a lot of weak contact on their part."
Inman's ability to keep the ball low and inside to right-handed hitters, combined with the excellent defensive play of his infielders led to 17 ground outs. Senior Colin Rooney (Yorba Linda, Calif./Esperanza HS) expertly patrolled a red hot corner throughout the game, coming down with several high choppers and catching a screaming liner off the bat of Kellen Hoime in the third inning. On the right side of the infield, freshman second baseman Joe Sever (San Jose, Calif./Bellarmine College Preparatory) was credited with three putouts and eight assists, including two via double play.
The Pepperdine defense successfully spun a 1-6-4-3 twin killing with one out in the second as freshman shortstop Zachary Vincej (Saugus, Calif./Saugus HS) perfectly charged and scooped up a ball that nicked off the end of Inman's glove, and then in the fourth, after Devin Lohman led off with a single, Inman induced Joey Terdoslavich into a 4-6-3 double play followed by a routine grounder to short.
"You are going to get those great plays from your defense when you consistently throw strikes," Strauss said. "That double play that Vincej helped turn was huge."
Long Beach's best chance to score came in the first inning when it appeared that leadoff hitter Brennan Metzger would score easily from second on Terdoslavich's single through the right side, but sophomore Ryan Van Amburg (Campbell, Calif./St. Francis HS) made a strong throw to the plate, where sophomore catcher Nate Johnson (Camarillo, Calif./Camarillo HS) completed the 9-2 putout. The outfield assist was Van Amburg's third of the year.
"Our defense made some great plays and made today's experience even better," Inman said. "Most of my success was a result of throwing strikes and letting the defense play for me. I think they are definitely one of the best in the league and in the nation."
The Dirtbags would later place runners on third in the fifth and sixth frames, but Inman struck out Hoime to end the fifth, then got two easy fly outs to end the threat in the sixth. Terdoslavich's fly out in the sixth was the first ball LBSU hit in the air off Inman since Metzger's leadoff single to right that started the game.
For as great as Pepperdine's pitching and defense was, it takes runs to win games, and the offense scraped together three two-out runs in the third before adding a Ryan Heroy (Henderson, Nev./Green Valley HS) solo home run in the fourth.
The Waves' third-inning rally began with sophomore left fielder Brian Humphries (El Cajon, Calif./Granite Hills HS) reaching on a fielder's choice and then stealing second base; from second, Humphries scored on Van Amburg's grounder through the left side to make it a 1-0 game. Van Amburg's RBI was followed by another single, a hit by pitch, and then consecutive bases loaded walks issued to designated hitter Floyd Given (Rohnert Park, Calif./Rancho Cotate HS) and Sever.
Heroy's fourth-inning blast over the left-field wall was his third of the season and 19th of his career.
Following the game, the Waves received a stimulating pep talk from former major league pitcher Jim Morris, who served as the inspiration behind the Walt Disney movie, "The Rookie." Morris is on campus this week as part of the 2010 Pepperdine Lectureship series and will be sharing his personal story and message of faith Thursday, May 6 in room 214 of the Cultural Arts Center from 2 to 3 p.m. All lectureship messages are open to the public and free of charge.
Pepperdine continues its six-game stretch Thursday with a 4 p.m. makeup game at Santa Clara and will then head to Saint Mary's Friday for the start of a three-game weekend series vs. the Gaels.
# # #
Pepperdine 4, Long Beach State 0 (May 05, 2010 at Malibu, Calif.)
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Long Beach State.... 000 000 000 - 0 6 0 (20-21)
Pepperdine.......... 003 100 00X - 4 8 1 (14-23)
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Pitchers: Long Beach State - Watson, Troy; Corrales, Josh(3); Nance, Tommy(5); Brown, David(7);
Trout, Cris(8) and Hoime, Kellen. Pepperdine - Inman, Keven and Johnson, Nate.
Win-INMAN, Keven(1-0) Loss-Watson, Troy(0-2) T-2:18 A-191
HR PEP - Heroy, Ryan (3).
Weather: 71, Sunny
