March 6, 2010
Pepperdine and LSU Box Score (March 6, 2010) 
BATON ROUGE, La. - Pepperdine scored two runs in the ninth on Floyd Given's home run but it wasn't enough as No. 2 LSU held on for a 3-2 win Saturday night before 7,647 fans at Alex Box Stadium.
The loss dropped Pepperdine's record to 4-7, while the defending national champion Tigers remain undefeated at 9-0.
Given (Rohnert Park, Calif./Rancho Cotate HS), a junior transfer from Sacramento City College, blasted his round-tripper to left field off LSU reliever Matty Ott with freshman Joe Sever (San Jose, Calif./Bellarmine College Preparatory) on first base. The Waves then continued their rally with senior Colin Rooney (Yorba Linda, Calif./Esperanza HS) reaching base on an error and advancing to second on a Nate Johnson (Camarillo, Calif./Camarillo HS) sacrifice.
But with Rooney in scoring position, sophomore Tyler Brubaker (Valencia, Calif./Valencia HS) hit a ground ball to third base that the Tigers spun into a game-ending 5-3-5 double play. The save was Ott's fifth of the year and starter Joey Bourgeois improved to 2-0.
Bourgeois held the Waves to one hit over seven innings, outdueling Pepperdine's Matt Bywater (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks HS) who hadn't lost a start in close to a year. Bywater's last defeat was to UCLA on March 26, 2009.
Bywater struck out seven through 6.1 innings, but also gave up seven hits and issued four walks. Of the three runs the Waves allowed only the first one was earned.
The Tigers scored in the first on a two-out RBI single and plated the game-clinching runs in the seventh with the assistance of two throwing errors.
Waves' reliever Aaron Gates (Villa Park, Calif./Orange Lutheran HS) entered the game after LSU went up 3-0 and retired all five batters he faced, striking out two.
Pepperdine returns home to Eddy D. Field Stadium Tuesday for a 2 p.m. game vs. USC and will play host to nationally ranked East Carolina next Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
LSU 3, Pepperdine 2 (Mar 06, 2010 at Baton Rouge, La.)----------------------------------------------------------------------Pepperdine.......... 000 000 002 - 2 3 5 (4-7)LSU................. 100 000 20X - 3 7 2 (10-0)----------------------------------------------------------------------Pitchers: Pepperdine - Bywater, Matt; GATES, Aaron(7) and Johnson, Nate. LSU - Bourgeois; Ott(8)and Gibbs.Win-Bourgeois(2-0) Save-Ott(5) Loss-BYWATER, Matt(1-1) T-2:49 A-11220HR PEP - Given, Floyd (1).Weather: 61 degrees, clearActual Attendance: 7647
