Feb. 28, 2010

Pepperdine and Cal State Northridge Box Score (Feb. 28. 2010)

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - Cal State Northridge defeated Pepperdine, 7-6, in walkoff fashion for the second time in three days Sunday afternoon at Matador Field. Second baseman Ryan Pineda recorded the game-winning shot - a two-run homer with two strikes and two outs in the ninth.

Northridge, which has not lost a home game to Pepperdine since 2000, improved to 4-2 on the season, while the Waves dropped to 2-4. Five of the last six meetings between these two regional rivals have been decided in the last at-bat.

Senior reliever Robert Dickmann (Woodland Hills, Calif./Notre Dame HS) suffered the loss, which was his first of the season. Dickmann pitched effectively for two innings following a solid start from Matt Bywater (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks HS) but was tagged for six runs on six hits over the final two frames.

CSUN erased a four-run deficit with three runs in the eighth, and then added three more in the ninth after being down 6-4.

Matador right fielder C.J. Belanger led off the decisive inning with his fourth hit of the game and cut the Waves' lead to 6-5 on Andrew Muren's two-out infield single. With Muren at first, Dickmann left a 1-2 pitch up in the zone to Pineda who slammed it over the wall in left-center field.

Pepperdine center fielder Brian Humphries (El Cajon, Calif./Granite Hills HS) gave the ball a chase but ultimately ran out of room at 375 feet.

Bywater, pitching for the first time since his complete game shutout of Cal State Fullerton last Saturday, tossed 74 pitches over 5.0 innings and surrendered one run on five hits. He also recorded four strikeouts, stranded four runners on base and gunned down Pineda at the plate in the fourth inning on a 1-2 fielder's choice.

Prior to the Northridge comeback, Pepperdine held leads of 3-0 and 5-1. In the second, the Waves ripped three consecutive singles that helped produce two runs off Matador starter Billy Ott, and in the third, reliever Shawn Wilyman walked Ryan Van Amburg (Campbell, Calif./St. Francis HS) with the bases loaded.

Wilyman, however, would quickly settle after issuing the free pass and retired 11 straight batters from the third through sixth innings.

Pepperdine eventually solved Wilyman in the eighth, and looked to have the game locked away at 5-1 following Van Amburg's RBI groundout that scored Colin Rooney (Yorba Linda, Calif./Esperanza HS) and Torrey Jacoby's (Scottsdale, Ariz./Notre Dame Preparatory) single that plated Floyd Given (Rohnert Park, Calif./Rancho Cotate HS).

In the ninth, with CSUN back in the game at 5-4, Rooney drove in Joe Sever (San Jose, Calif./Bellarmine College Preparatory) from first base on a two-out shot to the left-center gap and gave Pepperdine its final lead at 6-4.

Rooney finished the game 2-for-4 with two runs and a RBI. Jacoby and Van Amburg led the Waves with two RBI each.

Pepperdine returns to the diamond Tuesday for a 2 p.m. home game at Eddy D. Field Stadium vs. No. 6 UC Irvine (4-3). The Waves and Anteaters are meeting for the first time since 2006.

Cal State Northridge 7, Pepperdine 6 (Feb 28, 2010 at NORTHRIDGE, Calif.)----------------------------------------------------------------------Pepperdine.......... 021 000 021  -  6  9  0      (2-4)Cal State Northridge 001 000 033  -  7 11  0      (4-2)----------------------------------------------------------------------Pitchers: Pepperdine - Bywater, Matt; DICKMANN, Robert(6) and Johnson, Nate.Cal State Northridge - Ott, Billy; Wilyman, Shawn(3); Tremlin, Paul(9); Jolicoeur, Jimmy(9) andPiazza, Dominic.Win-Jolicoeur, Jimmy(1-0)  Loss-DICKMANN, Robert(1-1)  T-3:22  A-337HR CSUN - Pineda, Ryan.Weather: 72 degrees, clear skies