Final Stats

Box Score

SEATTLE, Wash. - The Pepperdine baseball team scored a hard-fought 5-3 victory in a back and forth battle at Washington on Sunday, scoring two runs in the eighth inning to pick up the win.

Freshman starter Ryan Wilson worked into the eighth to move to 3-0 on the year and the Waves got home runs from Chris Fornaci and Manny Jefferson to push the team's record to 8-8. The loss was just the fifth of the season for Washington.

Fornaci's (Walnut Creek, Calif./De La Salle HS) homer led things off in the game, putting the Waves up 1-0 in the top of the first, but it was a short-lived advantage as the Huskies answered in the bottom half of the inning. An RBI-groundout from Ben Rodriguez (Scottsdale, Ariz./Desert Mountain HS) in the third then gave Pepperdine a 2-1 lead that would last until the fifth. Washington scored in both the fifth and sixth innings on a groundout and sacrifice fly, to take a 3-2 lead late in the game.

Jefferson's (Lakewood, Calif./Lakewood HS) blast to left in the seventh inning would tie the game at 3-3. It was the sophomore's second homer of the season.

The Waves then used a two-out rally in the eighth to go ahead for good. Brandon Caruso (Pasadena, Calif./Loyola HS) and Jeremy Goldenetz (Corona, Calif./Corona Santiago HS) hit back-to-back singles to get a pair of runners on with two outs, and then Brad Anderson (Yorba Linda, Calif./Esperanza HS) brought home Caruso with a single deep in the hole at third. Nick Costello (Claremont, Calif./Claremont HS) added a second run with the fourth-straight single of the inning, driving a ball back up the middle to make it 5-3.

Wilson (Carlsbad, Calif./Carlsbad HS) would start the bottom of the eighth on the mound for the Waves, getting one out before he was relieved by Max Gamboa (Mill Valley, Calif./Tamalpais HS) for the final two outs of the inning. Chandler Blanchard (Henderson, Nev./Coronado HS) worked a perfect ninth for the save, setting down the final two batters with strikeouts to pick up his third save of the year.

Wilson finished the day giving up six hits and two earned runs in 7.1 innings of work. He issued just three walks and had two strikeouts. The first-year lefty has now gone at least six innings in all four of his starts and has an ERA of 0.99.

Reliever Spencer Jones took the loss for Washington, giving up both runs in the eighth. The Huskies went through four pitchers in the contest.

Goldenetz, Anderson, Costello and Jefferson all had two hits days for the Waves, and five different players drove in runs for Pepperdine on the day. Matt Jackson was 2-for-3 for Washington at the plate and scored two of the team's three runs.

The Waves return to Malibu for one game this week, hosting No. 4 UCLA on Tuesday for a non-conference matchup at 3 p.m. Pepperdine then hits the road to start WCC play at BYU Thurs.-Sat.