May 9, 2011
Pepperdine Baseball: Cal State Fullerton Game Notes (May 10, 2011) 
Pepperdine (19-24, 5-7 WCC) vs. #9 Cal State Fullerton (33-13, 14-4 Big West)
Alex Najera, LHP (0-3, 4.40) vs. Jake Floethe, RHP (3-2, 3.18)
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - Eddy D. Field Stadium, Malibu - 3 p.m./Wave Casts
TUESDAY'S GAME: Is the second of a two-game season series between Pepperdine and Cal State Fullerton and game four of a four-game homestand (1-3) ... The Waves enter this week at 5-7 in the WCC, tied for fifth with Loyola Marymount ... Pepperdine is 15-11 at home ... 18-19 during the day ... 3-5 on Tuesday ... 4-4 vs. Big West: (2-0 vs. Cal Poly, 0-1 vs. Cal State Fullerton, 0-1 vs. Long Beach, 1-1 vs. UCSB, 0-1 vs. UC Irvine, 1-0 vs. UC Riverside).
SOUND + VISION: Fans can catch all Pepperdine home games and selected road contests at PepperdineSports.com ... Just go to the site's home page and click on the Wave Casts link located just beneath the headlines ... Live statistics are also available via Game Tracker on all CBS-hosted sites.
WAVES VS. TITANS: Pepperdine is 46-64 all-time vs. Cal State Fullerton ... 23-20 at Eddy D. Field Stadium ... 23-44 at Goodwin Field, including a 13-3 loss there on April 5 ... Went 1-2 vs. the Titans in 2010 ... Won 6-0 behind Matt Bywater's complete game shutout on Feb. 20 ... Lost 12-5 on April 20 and 10-7 on May 12 ... Are 10-18 vs. Titans since 1999 ... 6-12 under the direction of head coach Steve Rodriguez ... Last beat Fullerton twice in one season during the 1999 campaign, when the Waves swept a two-game series.
THE BATS: Led by the stick of Joe Sever (.583, 7-for-12, 3 RBI), the Pepperdine offense batted .267 in three games vs. Santa Clara, bringing its team batting average for the season to .248 ... The Waves scored 11 runs on 27 hits, four of which left the yard ... Sever homered in game three and finished the series with a slugging percentage of 1.000 ... Nate Johnson and Trent Diedrich both went deep in game two ... Miles Silverstein blasted a solo shot in game one ... Johnson batted .333 vs. the Broncos and his round-tripper tied the game at 4-4 in the sixth ... Sever singled behind Johnson's home run and scored on Sam Meyer's game-winning double ... Meyer hit .444 (4-for-9) on the weekend, while two more batted above .300 ... Pepperdine's three-game home run streak is its longest since May 15-18, 2010 -- a stretch in which Johnson homered three times in as many games.
THE ARMS: Pepperdine's pitchers posted a 2.57 ERA and .232 opponents' batting average in three games vs. Santa Clara but earned just one win and an accompanying save ... Santa Clara scored 12 runs, but only eight were earned ... Jon Moscot won his first game as a Wave despite being hit the hardest among the weekend rotation, allowing four runs on 11 hits, but he hung on through the sixth inning and was the pitcher of record when the Waves completed their game two comeback ... He also picked off two runners ... Friday starter Aaron Gates recorded the best ERA of any starter at 2.25, but walked six and hit three batters and had to leave the game after eight innings with the game tied at 2-2 ... Sunday starter Matt Maurer struck out the most hitters with five, but also gave up five runs (two earned) through 4.0 innings ... The six-man bullpen did not yield a single earned run through 10.0 innings; however, Corey Miller was tagged with the loss in game one after the SCU leadoff man in the 10th reached on an error and scored the game-winning run.
THE GLOVES: The Pepperdine defense remained in a slump vs. Santa Clara despite turning three double plays to raise its season total to 53 ... SCU's Jason Terry in game one grounded into a 6-4-3 DP and flew out into a 9-5 DP after Harrison Kain made the catch and gunned down Lucas Herbst stretching for third ... Kain leads the Waves outfielders with eight assists ... On the flip side, Pepperdine committed at least two errors in each of three games and haven't played an errorless game since April 22 vs. Loyola Marymount ... The Waves season fielding percentage is .966, one percentage point lower than their opponents.
WAVES AMONG THE WCC LEADERS: As a team, Pepperdine ranks fifth in pitching (4.05), eighth in fielding (.966) and batting (.248) ... Brian Humphries is tied for fourth with two triples and tied for fifht with 10 stolen bases (11 attempts) ... Zach Vincej is tied for first with 13 hit by pitches and tied for fourth with four sacrifice flies ... Aaron Gates ranks second with his .202 opposing batting average ... Ricky Villarreal is fourth with six saves and ranks third with 14 games finished ... Brian McIlhenny is first with 24 appearances ... INF Joe Sever and Vincej are both among the top three players for fielding double plays with 44 and 41, respectively.
WAVES IN THE STANDINGS (82): Have spent the following days alone or tied at each position in the West Coast Conference standings: FIRST - 0, SECOND - 0, THIRD - 1, FOURTH - 6, FIFTH - 20, SIXTH - 5, SEVENTH - 0, EIGHTH - 1 ... Have spent 17 days above, 16 days at and 47 days below .500 this season ... Finished tied for third last year with San Francisco at 12-9 ... Since placing fifth in 1983, the Waves have finished first 14 times, second place 10 times and third on three occasions.
THE HEAD COACH: Steve Rodriguez is in his eighth season as the head coach of Pepperdine baseball and owns an all-time record of 260-195 (.571) ... Passed his former head coach Andy Lopez (241) for fourth place on the Waves' all-time coaching wins list following a three-game sweep of Eastern Kentucky (2/28-20) ... Moved ahead of Frank Sanchez (257) for third place with a 2-1 win vs. LMU on April 22 ... Needs to win four of the team's last 13 games to pass John Scolinos (263) for second place ... Served as an assistant coach under Sanchez from 2000 to 2003 ... Managed his 450th game as the Waves' head coach on April 23, 2011 vs. LMU ... Only Dave Gorrie (611) and Scolinos (482) have managed more games than Rodriguez (455) while wearing the Pepperdine uniform ... Guided his clubs to three WCC titles and five NCAA Regional appearances ... Voted Top Chef at the 2010 and 2011 Southern California Baseball Coaches Cooking Challenges hosted by ESPN Zone in Anaheim.
WAVES AT EDDY D. FIELD STADIUM (15-11, .577): Are 1-2 on current four-game homestand after dropping three-game set to Santa Clara ... Was the Waves first series loss at home to the Broncos in more than a decade and their third of the 2011 (Louisville, BYU) ... Need to win two more of their remaining nine home games to extend their streak of non-losing (.500 or better) seasons to a 38th year ... Have not experienced a losing season at home since 1973 -- their inaugural year on the Malibu Campus, and the last time they also posted a losing record vs. WCC opponents ... Their stretch includes 31 seasons of posting a winning percentage of .600 or better ... 12 years above .700 ... 7 seasons above .800, including the 1992 campaign in which the Waves finished 24-1-1 (.942) ... The Waves are at the end of their 39th season at Eddy D. Field Stadium, where they are 824-326-12 (.714).
WAVES ON THE ROAD (4-13, .235): Lost at UC Irvine (5/4) by a score of 5-4, their lone road game in between eight home contests ... With only five road games remaining, clinched their fifth-straight losing season away from Eddy D. Field Stadium following a 3-2 loss at UCSB (4/19) ... Finished most recent four-game road trip at 1-3, which included a series loss at San Diego ... Their final extended trip will be to San Francisco and Long Beach State from April 13-17 ... Have claimed four winning seasons on the road since 1999 ... 2010's 19 road losses were their most since 2004, when they dropped 19 during head coach Steve Rodriguez' first season.
ABOUT PEPPERDINE: Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won a total of nine NCAA championships in five different men's sports -- one of just 14 schools to have accomplished this feat. Of the 14, Pepperdine is the only non-BCS school and has by far the smallest enrollment. The majority of Pepperdine's teams are ranked nationally year after year and compete for conference and national titles.
