March 15, 2011

Box Score

Pepperdine and Long Beach State Box Score (March 15, 2011)

MALIBU, Calif. - The Pepperdine baseball team lost its first extra-inning game of the season Tuesday at Eddy D. Field Stadium, dropping a 7-5 decision in 12 innings to Long Beach State. The Dirtbags rallied from a 5-3 deficit with a pair of runs in the eighth and scored twice more in the 12th in improving to 9-7 on the season.

Pepperdine is 6-10 following the loss and will next play host to a nationally-ranked Coastal Carolina squad for a three-game series beginning Friday at 3 p.m.

Long Beach scored the go-ahead run with one out in the 12th after Mike Marjama roped a double to the left-center gap that scored Matt Hibbert. Marjama later scored on a wild pitch uncorked by reliever Ricky Villarreal (Edinburg, Texas/Edinburg HS) who was in the midst of his fifth inning of work.

The Waves trailed most of the game and were down 3-1 entering their half of the seventh, where they scored four times off LBSU starter Ryan Strufing and reliever Josh Frye.

Pepperdine loaded the bases with one out to start the seventh and after a Torrey Jacoby (Camarillo, Calif./Notre Dame (Ariz.) Preparatory) RBI single made it a 3-2 game, Zach Vincej (Saugus, Calif./Saugus HS) tied it with a fly ball to center. Harrison Kain (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks HS) then followed with a two-out, two-run double to right that plated both Brian Humphries (El Cajon, Calif./Granite Hills HS) and Jacoby.

The lead didn't last long as Long Beach struck back with two unearned runs in the eighth against freshman Eric Karch (Fresno, Calif./Clovis West HS) and Villarreal. Dirtbag infielder Matt Duffy reached on a fielding error by Vincej the shortstop to start the inning, and a subsequent pair of singles narrowed the gap to 5-4.

Villarreal entered the game to hold that slim lead with two on and one out, but after getting pinch hitter Mike Hill to foul out to left, Kirk Singer chopped a single over the shoulder of Jacoby at first base to bring home the tying run.

Villarreal kept the Dirtbags in check over the next three innings as he faced the minimum nine batters with two strikeouts.

Pepperdine couldn't do much offensively after the seventh, leaving three more base runners stranded over the next five innings including two at second base. Four members of the Long Beach bullpen combined for 6.0 innings of work in which they scattered three hits and struck out two.

The Long Beach outfielders also did a great job on defense as all three positions took turns robbing the Waves of extra bases. Tyler Brubaker (Valencia, Calif./Saugus HS) was almost to second base when Matt Hibbert made a backhanded over-the-shoulder catch at the right field warning track in the fifth inning, and then the next batter, Jacoby, had a double taken away when Johnny Bekakis made a diving catch on his line drive. A shot off the bat of Joe Sever (San Jose, Calif./Bellarmine College Preparatory) in the 10th inning looked like it had a chance to clear the wall in dead-center field, but Brennan Metzger was there to haul it in.

Freshman Matt Maurer (Medford, Ore./North Medford HS) started for Pepperdine and gave his team four scoreless innings of work with a pair of Ks. He left the game holding a 1-0 lead thanks to Miles Silverstein's (Bell Canyon, Calif./Calabasas HS) second home run of the year - a first-inning line drive blast that zipped over the wall in left.

Maurer was followed to the mound by three relievers all of whom allowed one earned run from the fifth through seventh innings.

Back-to-back Long Beach doubles to start the fifth tied the game at 1-1, and in the sixth, the Dirtbags took their first lead on Bekakis' RBI single. Long Beach tried to score two runs on the Bekakis hit, but Kain threw out Marjama at home plate from center field.

Singer smacked a solo shot to left in leading off the seventh.

Long Beach 7, Pepperdine 5 (Mar 15, 2011 at Malibu, Calif.)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Long Beach.......... 000 011 120 002 - 7 14 2 (9-7)

Pepperdine.......... 100 000 400 000 - 5 7 1 (6-10)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Pitchers: Long Beach - Strufing, Ryan; Frye, Josh(7); Friedrichs, Kyle(8); Magallon, Eddie(10);

Underwood, Nate(12) and Murai, Royce; Marjama, Mike. Pepperdine - Maurer, Matt;

DICKERSON, Cody(5); SWANNER, Michael(6); McILHENNY, Brian(6); KARCH, Eric(8);

VILLARREAL, Ricky(8) and Johnson, Nate; Diedrich, Trent; /.

Win-Magallon, Eddie(2-0) Save-Underwood, Nate(1) Loss-VILLARREAL, Ricky(1-1) T-3:19 A-272

HR LBSU - Singer, Kirk (1).

HR PEP - Silverstein, Miles (2).

Weather: 70, Sunny

Strufing faced 3 batters in the 7th.