April 21, 2011
Box Score
Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount Box Score (April 21, 2011) 
MALIBU, Calif. - The Pepperdine baseball team lost 5-2 to Jason Wheeler and the Loyola Marymount Lions Thursday afternoon at Eddy D. Field Stadium. The LMU southpaw pitched a complete game on 106 pitches, struck out two, and allowed one earned run on three hits.
The win keeps the Lions (21-15, 5-2 WCC) at least one game behind first-place Gonzaga which plays host to Saint Mary's tonight, while the Waves fell to 16-20 on the season and 2-5 vs. the West Coast Conference.
Wheeler (5-1) held the Waves hitless until there was one away in the sixth when designated hitter Tyler Brubaker (Valencia, Calif./Saugus HS) smacked a single back up the middle. Leadoff man Harrison Kain (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks) followed with a double over the right fielder's glove, and Miles Silverstein (Bell Canyon, Calif./Calabasas HS) drove in Brubaker on a ground ball to short.
Pepperdine made it a three-run game in the ninth at 5-2 on Trent Diedrich's (Fresno, Calif./Bullard HS) sacrifice fly to center.
Freshman starter Matt Maurer (Medford, Ore./North Medford HS) nearly matched Wheeler's effort in terms of innings pitched, delivering a career high 8.0 frames of work, but could not keep the Lions off the scoreboard as they racked up their five runs on 11 hits.
Third-baseman Alex Guthrie was the biggest thorn in Maurer's side, going 2-for-3 with three RBI. Guthrie doubled in the game's first run in the second before drilling a solo shot in the seventh that dinged the bottom panel of the right-field scoreboard.
LMU made it a 3-0 game in the third. Joe Vierra produced a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded to bring in one run, and Zach Fujimoto drove in another on his RBI ground out.
Then in the fifth, the first three Lions again all reached base with Guthrie driving in his second of three runs on a ground ball to short. Maurer, however, escaped that particular jam by making a great catch in foul territory and then getting Jason Barmasse to ground out to third.
Maurer got 12 ground outs to go with his five strikeouts.
Relievers Jordan Luvisi (Scottsdale, Ariz./Notre Dame Preparatory) and Ricky Villarreal (Edinburg, Texas/Edinburg HS) combined to retire the side in order in the ninth.
Pepperdine and LMU continue their three-game series Friday at 3 p.m.
Loyola Marymount 5, Pepperdine 2 (Apr 21, 2011 at Malibu, Calif.)
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Loyola Marymount.... 012 010 100 - 5 11 2 (21-15, 5-2 WCC)
Pepperdine.......... 000 001 001 - 2 3 1 (16-20, 2-5 WCC)
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Pitchers: Loyola Marymount - WHEELER, Jason and KOCH, Matt. Pepperdine - Maurer, Matt;
LUVISI, Jordan(9); VILLARREAL, Ricky(9) and Diedrich, Trent.
Win-WHEELER, Jason(5-1) Loss-MAURER, Matt(3-4) T-2:11 A-147
HR LMU - GUTHRIE, Alex (1).
Weather: 64, Partly Cloudy
