Final Stats

Box Score

SPOKANE, Wash. - The Pepperdine baseball team evened its series with the Gonzaga Bulldogs on Saturday night, picking up a 7-4 win in West Coast Conference play.

Pepperdine moved to 9-9 overall on the season and 1-1 in WCC action. Gonzaga falls to 10-7 overall, 1-1 WCC.

The Waves scored in the top of the first, getting an RBI double from Aaron Barnett (Mission Viejo, Calif./Capistrano Valley HS) to take the early 1-0 advantage. That would be Pepperdine's only offense until the visitors were able to break the game open in the top of the sixth.

The Waves got a two-run double from Jordan Qsar (El Cajon, Calif./Valhalla HS) and Ben Rodriguez (Scottsdale, Ariz./Desert Mountain HS) drew a bases loaded walk to make it 4-0 in favor of Pepperdine. Chase Lambert (Malibu, Calif./Malibu HS) singled with the bases loaded to make it a 5-0 game, giving the Waves what would turn out to be the game-winning run.

Kiko Garcia (Chula Vista, Calif./St. Augustine HS) was brilliant for most of the evening, holding the Zags scoreless through seven innings while giving up just four hits. Gonzaga finally got to Garcia for a pair of homers and four runs in the bottom of the eighth, making it a 5-4 game.

That was all the offense the Bulldogs could muster, however, as Ryan Wilson (Carlsbad, Calif./Carlsbad HS) took over on the mound and set down the final four Gonzaga batters in order to pick up the save.

Pepperdine loaded the bases in the ninth and added a pair of insurance runs on a sacrifice fly and a Qsar single.

Garcia moved to 3-1 with the win and Wilson picked up his second save of the season. Barnett, Qsar and Rodriguez all had two-hit days for Pepperdine and Qsar led the Waves with three RBI.

Hunter Wells took the loss for Gonzaga, falling to 2-1. Jeffrey Bohling had a pair of RBI for the home team.

The two squads will play the rubber game tomorrow at noon in Spokane. That game can be seen live on TheW.tv.