Box Score (G1) 

Box Score (G2) 

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- The Pepperdine baseball team split its doubleheader with San Francisco on Saturday afternoon, taking the opener 5-4 before dropping the second game 5-2.

Pepperdine came back in the early game before running into a buzz saw in the late contest in USF starter Anthony Shew. The Waves move to 23-21, 13-7 WCC with the split, keeping pace with the Dons near the top of the conference standings.

The Waves took the first game of the doubleheader after trailing 4-3, thanks to solo-home runs by Hutton Moyer (San Diego, Calif./Cathedral Catholic HS) and Brad Anderson (Yorba Linda, Calif./Esperanza HS) in the seventh inning. The Waves pitching did the rest from there.

Moyer tied the game up with a shot in the seventh, hitting his team-leading ninth homer of the year to make it a 4-4 game. Anderson then stepped to the plate one batter later and put Pepperdine up for good with his seventh long ball of the year.

A.J. Puckett (Danville, Calif./De La Salle HS) came out for his seventh inning of work after that and kept the Waves ahead after giving up a leadoff single thanks to a strikeout and a double play. Puckett struck out six batters and walked two in his 7.0 innings of work to move to 6-4 on the year.

Chandler Blanchard (Henderson, Nev./Coronado HS) cruised through the eighth inning to hold the one-run advantage for the Waves and then Max Gamboa (Mill Valley, Calif./Tamalpais HS) worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning to pick up his third save of the year.

After the Dons went up 1-0 in the third inning, the Waves responded with three runs in the fourth to take a 3-1 lead early in the contest. Connor Hofmann hit a three-run homer for USF in the fifth, however, putting the home team ahead 4-3 before the Waves' comeback.

Moyer went 2-for-3 in the game, with two RBI and a run scored. Anderson also had a two-hit day as the Waves posted 10 total hits.

Hofmann led USF with his three RBI and Michael Eaton went 3-for-3 at the plate. Christian Cecilio took the loss for the Dons, falling to 5-3.

The offense wasn't there in the late game for Pepperdine as Shew took a perfect game into the eighth inning against the Waves. Brandon Caruso (Pasadena, Calif./Loyola HS) broke up the no-hit bid with a solo homer, giving Pepperdine its first run of the game.

Shew struck out seven and allowed just the four hits in 9.0 innings pitched to out-duel Waves' starter Ryan Wilson (Carlsbad, Calif./Carlsbad HS). Wilson tossed 6.2 innings, giving up seven hits and three earned runs.

USF scored two runs in the fifth on a Nico Giarratano single and then tacked on another in the seventh to go up 3-0. Another two-run single in the eighth made it 5-1. The Waves got two runners on and Aaron Barnett (Mission Viejo, Calif./Capistrano Valley HS) singled in a run in the ninth, but Pepperdine couldn't complete the comeback. All four Wave hits came in the final two frames.

The Waves and Dons close their series tomorrow at 1 p.m.