March 13, 2010
Pepperdine and East Carolina Box Score (March 13, 2010) 
MALIBU, Calif. - No. 13 East Carolina salvaged the third and final game of its series with Pepperdine Saturday afternoon at Eddy D. Field Stadium escaping with a 3-2 victory. The game was highlighted by the efforts of starting pitchers Matt Bywater (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks HS) and Seth Maness who combined for 21 strikeouts in a classic pitcher's duel.
The victory snapped a nine-game losing streak for the Pirates within the state of California and lifted their record to 8-6, while the Waves fell to 6-9.
Bywater delivered his third quality start of the season behind 10 strikeouts, which tied a season high, but ECU quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first on Kyle Roller's home run, and scored the game-winning run in the fourth on Devin Harris' bases-loaded double play.
Bywater loaded the bases on a controversial hit by pitch of Austin Homan, which immediately followed a pair of Pirate singles. The home plate umpire originally called foul ball, but awarded Homan the base after first getting an earful from the ECU coaches and then conferring with the rest of his crew.
Following the Harris double play, Bywater struck out catcher Zach Wright and allowed just two more base runners over the next four innings. Bywater finished the game with 110 pitches and 79 strikes.
Sophomore reliever Aaron Gates (Villa Park, Calif./Orange Lutheran HS) faced the minimum three batters in the ninth and benefited from a strike out/caught stealing to end his lone frame of work. Sophomore catcher Nate Johnson (Camarillo, Calif./Camarillo HS) had another strong day behind the plate as he gunned down two of three opposing base stealers.
On the other side of the score sheet, Maness struck out a career-high 11 Waves through seven innings and gave up Pepperdine's only two runs in the third inning.
Redshirt sophomore Miles Silverstein (Bell Canyon, Calif./Calabasas HS) scored the first run on sophomore Brian Humphries' (El Cajon, Calif./Granite Hills HS) single up the middle, and then freshman Joe Sever (San Jose, Calif./Bellarmine College Preparatory) tied the game at 2-2 with a RBI groundout that plated junior Harrison Kain (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks HS).
The Waves put men on second base against Maness in each of the next three innings only to see the ECU starter respond with several more punch outs. Maness struck out the side in the fifth and struck out two more Waves in the sixth after placing runners at first and second and one out.
Pepperdine didn't fare much better against ECU reliever Seth Simmons, who scattered two hits over the final two innings with three strikeouts. The Waves started a mini-rally in the ninth with consecutive two-out singles but Simmons caught Humphries looking at strike three to end the game.
Next up for the Waves is a four-game road trip, which includes three games (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) at Stanford and a Tuesday night game at USC. Pepperdine is making its first trip to Palo Alto since the 2008 NCAA Regional.
East Carolina 3, Pepperdine 2 (Mar 13, 2010 at Malibu, Calif.)----------------------------------------------------------------------East Carolina....... 200 100 000 - 3 9 2 (8-6)Pepperdine.......... 002 000 000 - 2 8 0 (6-9)----------------------------------------------------------------------Pitchers: East Carolina - MANESS, Seth; SIMMONS, Seth(8) and WRIGHT, Zach. Pepperdine -Bywater, Matt; GATES, Aaron(9) and Johnson, Nate.Win-MANESS, Seth(2-2) Save-SIMMONS, Seth(4) Loss-BYWATER, Matt(1-2) T-2:32 A-363HR ECU - ROLLER, Kyle (3).Weather: 63, Its always sunny in Malibu
