May 25, 2010
Box Score
LONG BEACH, Calif. - An eighth inning leadoff walk followed by two sacrifice bunts, an error and sacrifice fly equaled a 9-8 loss for the Pepperdine baseball team at Long Beach State on Tuesday night at Blair Field.
The loss dropped the Waves' record to 21-30 while the Dirtbags improved to 23-29. Both schools enter their final conference series this weekend.
Freshman Jordan Luvisi (Scottsdale, Ariz./Notre Dame Preparatory) suffered the loss, which was his second of the year. Luvisi opened the inning by walking No. 9 batter Kellen Hoime and watched him advance to second on a Brennan Metzger sacrifice bunt attempt coupled with his fielding error.
Luvisi was pulled in favor of reliever Ricky Villarreal (Edinburg, Texas/Edinburg HS), who allowed another sacrifice bunt that moved both runners in scoring position and Jonathan Jones capitalized with a fly ball to left that plated the game-winning run.
Long Beach reliever Cris Trout picked up the win and improved to 2-0 with a scoreless 1.1 innings of work.
Pepperdine scored five runs between the second and third innings even though only two of its five hits left the infield. The Waves loaded the bases with one out in the second on a double by Ryan Heroy (Henderson, Nev./Green Valley HS) followed by two hit batsmen. Heroy scored the game's first run on a fielder's choice, Joe Sever (San Jose, Calif./Bellarmine College Preparatory) came around on an infield single and Ryan Van Amburg (Campbell, Calif./St. Francis HS) touched the plate on Nate Johnson's RBI walk.
Two unearned runs in the third pushed the Waves' lead to 5-0. With Heroy at first, Sever grounded into what could have been a 4-6-3 twin killing, but the ball skipped under the glove of Matt Duffy to keep the inning moving for Cody Yount's (Paradise Valley, Calif./Chaparral HS) second of two sacrifice bunts.
Heroy trotted home on Miles Silverstein's (Bell Canyon, Calif./Calabasas HS) sacrifice fly to center and Sever scored a hustle run all the way from second on Van Amburg's single to shallow left.
Long Beach climbed back into the game with a four-run third inning. The Dirtbags' first three batters all singled and the first two scored on Tre Dennis' bases loaded double down the right field line. Jonathan Jones' RBI ground ball plated Brennan Metzger and Dennis scored on Steve Tinoco's single through the left side.
The six hits allowed that frame tied an in-game season high. Waves pitching also allowed six hits to Stony Brook in the first inning and vs. Santa Clara in the eighth inning.
The Dirtbags grabbed their first lead of the game in the sixth with a second four-run frame, but the Waves quickly responded with three two-out runs in the seventh. Yount provided the inning's biggest hit, doubling home Heroy and Sever with a line drive to left that substitute outfielder Juan Avila dove for and missed.
As the ball slowly rolled away from Avila, Heroy scored easily from second while Sever motored all the way around from first base. Yount's pinch runner Harrison Kain (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks HS) scored an unearned run on the next play when shortstop Kirk Singer bobbled Silverstein's grounder back up the middle.
Pepperdine returns to action Friday for the start of a three-game weekend series against the San Francisco Dons. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. The Waves can finish as high as second place in the WCC with a three wins over USF combined with a Gonzaga sweep of Portland.
Long Beach State 9, Pepperdine 8 (May 25, 2010 at Long Beach, Calif.)----------------------------------------------------------------------Pepperdine.......... 032 000 300 - 8 15 1 (21-30)Long Beach State.... 004 004 01X - 9 10 2 (23-29)----------------------------------------------------------------------Pitchers: Pepperdine - Inman, Keven; NAJERA, Alex(6); LUVISI, Jordan(7); VILLARREAL, Ricky(8)and Johnson, Nate. Long Beach State - Pinder, Branden; Watson, Troy(2); Arnerich, Kenny(4);Brown, David(7); Donohue, Ryan(8); Trout, Cris(8) and Hoime, Kellen.Win-Trout, Cris(2-0) Loss-LUVISI, Jordan(1-2) T-3:40 A-652Weather: ClearLUVISI, J. faced 2 batters in the 8th.
