Pepperdine University
Dayton
Waves Cap Comeback On Silverstein Double
3/27/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 27, 2011
Pepperdine and Dayton Box Score (March 27, 2011) 
MALIBU, Calif. - Miles Silverstein drilled a two-out, two-run double to left center that brought home the go-ahead run in Pepperdine's come-from-behind 8-6 victory over Dayton Sunday afternoon at Eddy D. Field Stadium. It was the Waves' sixth comeback win of the season and their third in four games played this week.
"We're proving to be a very resilient and determined team," head coach Steve Rodriguez said of his club, which improved to 12-11 following today's thriller. "We've really been competing well in certain situations, and it's been exciting to watch us play. Even though the numbers haven't been great this year, there's been a lot of heart in each of the wins."
Dayton, which fell to 10-13 with the loss, led Pepperdine throughout the game's first half and was up 5-3 entering the sixth.
After the first two runners reached on a hit by pitch and error, Zach Vincej (Saugus, Calif./Saugus HS) dropped down a RBI sacrifice bunt up the first-base side that cut the Waves' deficit to one, and then with one out and the bases-loaded Harrison Kain (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks HS) tied it on a RBI ground out.
The 5-5 tie lasted all of one pitch as Silverstein (Bell Canyon, Calif./Calabasas HS) blasted the first pitch he saw from Mike Hauschild into the gap and over the outreached glove of left fielder Zach Blanchette.
"In that at-bat with guys in scoring position I knew he (Hauschild) wasn't going to give me anything to hit - he's got a good slider and splitter - but I got a fastball early in the count and put a good swing on it," Silverstein said. "I saw their left fielder dive for it, thinking he might have made the catch … but the ball popped up. It was a huge hit for us and I'm happy I got it."
Pepperdine went on to add an insurance run in the eighth on Kain's third hit that drove in Ryan Van Amburg (Campbell, Calif./St. Francis HS) from second. Kain, the Waves' leadoff man, finished the game 3-for-5 with two RBI, and for the week batted .563 (9-for-16) with five runs, five RBI and two stolen bases.
Pepperdine's last run gave the home team some extra cushion to work with during a tense ninth inning in which Dayton trimmed the Waves' lead to 8-6, and had the tying run at the plate when the game ended on a pop up in front of the plate.
Ricky Villarreal (Edinburg, Texas/Edinburg HS) earned the save, his fifth of the year, behind two effective innings of work.
Waves' starter Aaron Gates (Villa Park, Calif./Orange Lutheran HS) overcame some hard-luck moments early on to pick up his second consecutive win. The junior surrendered a two-out run in the first, in which a two-base failed pickoff at first was followed by an RBI single, and in the second he balked in a run that gave Dayton a 2-0 lead.
The Flyers' third inning started with a single and double and both those hitters advanced and scored on consecutive RBI groundouts that built their advantage to 4-1. But Gates responded with a scoreless fourth, and after surrendering Brian Blasik's solo shot in the fifth, induced the second of three Dayton ground-ball double plays.
Gates hung on through three batters in the seventh, but with two runners in scoring position, the coaches turned to reliever Eric Karch (Fresno, Calif./Clovis West HS) who got Danny Welch to ground out to third, and then to Brian McIlhenny (Scottsdale, Ariz./Brophy College Preparatory), who ended the threat with a strike out of Zach Stewart.
"Gates is a true competitor," Rodriguez said, "and even though he made some mistakes today, he also made the pitches he had to in those tough situations. Getting those double plays definitely made it an easier game."
Despite being down by as many as three runs, the Pepperdine offense was able to keep pace with the Flyers by getting a pair of solo shots off the bats of Trent Diedrich (Fresno, Calif./Bullard HS) and Chris Amezquita (La Mirada, Calif./Servite HS) in the second and third innings, respectively.
For Diedrich, who missed all of 2010 and half of 2009 with injuries, it was his first home run since April 11, 2008 - a span of 204 at-bats.
"I was sitting fastball waiting for the 3-1 pitch, thinking I was going to hit it back up the middle, but he (starter Tim Bury) left the ball up and in, and I got the barrel right on it," Diedrich said, adding, "It's good to know guys on this team aren't giving up. We struggled last year whenever we were down, but now we're persevering and I think we'll continue to be good as long as we don't press."
Amezquita's shot over the left-field wall off Flyer reliever Trent Haughn was his first in a Waves' uniform and first since hitting one as a member of the UCLA Bruins in 2009 vs. UC Davis.
In the fifth, Pepperdine trimmed Dayton's lead to 5-3 on Brian Humphries' (El Cajon, Calif./Granite Hills HS) RBI single through the right side. Humphries, the team's leading hitter this season with a .306 average, is in the midst of a nine-game hitting streak.
The series vs. Dayton brought an end to the Waves' season-long 12-game homestand (7-5) as they'll next play a Tuesday night game at Cal Poly (6 p.m.) before coming home Thursday for a start of a three-game series vs. future WCC rival BYU.
Start times for the BYU games are 3 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 1 p.m. Saturday. The Cougars do not play games on Sunday in recognition of the Sabbath.
Pepperdine 8, Dayton 6 (Mar 27, 2011 at Malibu, Calif.)
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Dayton.............. 112 010 001 - 6 10 1 (10-13)
Pepperdine.......... 010 114 01X - 8 13 2 (12-11)
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Pitchers: Dayton - Tim Bury; Trent Haughn(3); Tommy Konrad(5); Bryce Lahrman(5);
Mike Hauschild(6) and Danny Welch. Pepperdine - Gates, Aaron; KARCH, Eric(7);
McILHENNY, Brian(7); VILLARREAL, Ricky(8) and Diedrich, Trent.
Win-GATES, Aaron(2-3) Save-VILLARREAL, Ricky(5) Loss-Mike Hauschild(4-3) T-2:44 A-224
HR UD - Brian Blasik (1).
HR PEP - Amezquita, Chris (1); Diedrich, Trent (1).
Weather: 60, Mostly Sunny
Konrad faced 1 batter in the 5th.
Lahrman faced 2 batters in the 6th.
McILHENNY, B faced 1 batter in the 8th.
