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MALIBU, Calif. - The Pepperdine baseball team opened its season with a doubleheader sweep of Saint Joseph's on Saturday, beating the Hawks 8-0 in the opener and then 7-5 in the late game. Pepperdine got a combined one-hitter from Ryan Wilson and Kiko Garcia in the opener and then came from behind in the second.

Wilson and Garcia split the workload nearly down the middle in Saturday's early game and Pepperdine got 12 hits to cruise to the victory. The Waves took the lead in a back-and-forth second game in the fourth inning and then held the Hawks scoreless the rest of the way to start the year 2-0.

The teams were playing a doubleheader after being rained out on Friday. The Waves and Hawks will finish the series tomorrow at 1 p.m.

Ben Rodriguez led the offensive charge on Saturday, going 4-for-6 over the two games, with two homers, five RBI and three runs scored. Playing in his first collegiate game, freshman Quincy McAfee went 5-for-10, driving in two runs and scoring a team-high four. Matt Gelalich and Brandon Caruso each had three-hit days as well, with Gelalich driving in and scoring three runs. McAfee and Gelalich each homered on the day as well.

Pepperdine broke open the first game in the third inning with three runs. Caruso got the scoring going with an RBI-double. Brandt Belk followed with an RBI-groundout and then Matt Crowder singled in a run. Pepperdine would tack on three more runs in the sixth inning thanks to a three-run shot by Gelalich.

Wilson worked 4.2 scoreless innings without giving up a hit after getting the start. He struck out five batters, but also walked six. Garcia came in and tossed the final 4.1 innings, also striking out five batters while walking none. He gave up the lone hit of the game to start the sixth inning, but promptly got two strikeouts and a flyout to end the threat.

Pepperdine would use three pitchers in the late game, with Max Gamboa going 4.0 innings in the start. Jonathan Pendergast entered the game with the Waves leading 6-5 in the fifth. He would not allow a run over the next 3.2 innings to get the win in relief. Max Green tossed the final four outs to pick up the save. Green stranded two runners to end the top of the eighth and then tossed a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

Each team led twice through the first four innings of the second game, with Saint Joseph's jumping out to an early 1-0 lead, only to see the Waves score twice in the bottom half of the inning. Back-to-back two-out doubles in the top of the second made it a 3-2 Hawks lead and the visitors would go up 4-2 in the third on a solo-home run by Brian Lau. Matthew Kanfer and Rodriguez would answer with run-scoring doubles to tie it up in the bottom half of the inning.

After another Saint Joseph's run in the top of the fourth, McAfee gave Pepperdine the lead for good with his first collegiate home run, a two-run shot that made it 6-5. The Waves' pitching took it from there as Pepperdine would also add on a run in the fifth thanks to Rodriguez's second homer.

McAfee was 3-for-5 in the late game and the Waves had nine hits as a team. Saint Joseph's found its offense with 12 hits in the second game after getting one-hit in the opener. The Hawks left 10 runners on base, though.

As a team the Waves went 22-for-61 in the opening-day doubleheader.

Pepperdine will send freshman Will Jensen to the mound for tomorrow's finale.