MALIBU, Calif. –The Pepperdine baseball team hits the road this week, taking on UCLA on Friday, USC on Saturday and Cal State Fullerton on Sunday.
SCHEDULE:
Friday (3/5) - Pepperdine at UCLA at 5 p.m.
Saturday (3/6) - Pepperdine at USC at 2 p.m.
Sunday (3/7) - Pepperdine at CSU Fullerton at 1 p.m.
COVERAGE: The games against UCLA and USC will be streamed at Pac-12.com and the game against Cal State Fullerton will be streamed at BigWest.com. Links to the broadcasts as well as live stats are available on the baseball schedule page on PepperdineWaves.com. Fans can also follow @PeppBaseball on Twitter for live, in-game updates.
LAST WEEK: Last week, the Waves took on then ninth-ranked UCSB in a four-game set. The Gauchos defeated the Waves in all four games. In the first game of the series,
Reese Alexiades was part of two sets of back-to-back home runs, as he homered before
Ryan Johnson in the fourth inning and after
Justin Lutes in the seventh inning.
SERIES VS. UCLA: The Bruins have a 63-39-4 advantage over the Waves all-time. UCLA has won the last four meetings, and the last time the Waves defeated the Bruins was in the 2016 season.
SERIES VS. USC: The Waves and Trojans have faced each other 128 total times in their long history. USC holds an 83-44-1 advantage and won the last meeting in 2019. In 2016, the two teams split the two-game set, each winning at home.
SERIES VS. CAL STATE FULLERTON: The Waves and Titans have a long history, with Fullerton holding a 71-48 advantage over the Waves. Pepperdine won the last meeting in 2019, but before that, the Titans won the previous seven matchups.
LAST YEAR: Last year was shaping up to be one of the best years in recent memory for Pepperdine baseball. Before the COVID-19 pandemic shortened the season, the Waves were 12-3 and ranked as high as #16 on some polls. Just before West Coast Conference play was scheduled to start, the Waves had defeated defending national runner-up Michigan in two of three games.
FOLLOW AND LIKE WAVES BASEBALL: Be sure and join the Waves' growing community on Facebook (Pepperdine Baseball), Instagram (@pepperdinebaseball) and Twitter (@PeppBaseball) today.
WCC PRESEASON: Pepperdine is predicted to finish first in the West Coast Conference this year. The whole list is as follows:
1. Pepperdine, 2. Gonzaga, 3. San Diego, 4. BYU, 5. Loyola Marymount, 6. San Francisco, 7. Portland, 8. Santa Clara, 9. Saint Mary's, 10. Pacific.
The Waves also had four athletes named to the Preseason All-WCC team: Seniors
Reese Alexiades, Billy Cook and
Aharon Modlin, and junior RHP
Cooper Chandler.
THE SQUAD: The Waves bring back nearly every member of last year's squad, losing only RHP
Wil Jensen to the professional ranks. Most notably, the team's top four producing offensive bats
Reese Alexiades, Billy Cook, Justin Lutes and
Aharon Modlin all return to Malibu.
Alexiades hit .397 in 2020, second-best on the team. He was also second on the team in RBI with 15 and led the team in doubles with six.
Cook came back from an injury in 2019 and had the best year of his career in 2020. The junior hit .344, good for third on the team. He tied for the team lead in home runs with four, led the team in OPS (1.124) and was third on the team in RBI with 14.
Lutes rebounded from a tough 2019 season to a great 2020 season, hitting .328, good for fourth on the team. He shared a team lead for home runs with four, including two home runs against Florida International. He had a 1.093 OPS, good for second on the team, and led the team in RBI with 21.
Modlin had the best year of his career in 2020, leading the team with a .413 batting average and 26 hits. He was also third on the team in OPS (1.043) and second on the team in doubles.
Pepperdine brings in 12 newcomers, all of which are freshmen.
COACHING STAFF: 2021 marks the sixth season of head coach
Rick Hirtensteiner's tenure at the helm for Pepperdine. Hirtensteiner served as an assistant on the Waves' staff for 17 years prior to taking over for Steve Rodriguez, who left for Baylor in 2015. Hirtensteiner hired
Jim Lawler on an interim basis to fill the team's role last year as pitching coach after Rolando Garza left after four years. Lawler has over 35 years of collegiate baseball coaching experience, most notably spending 25 years as the pitching coach at Texas A&M. Hirtensteiner hired Pepperdine baseball legend
Danny Worth in the summer of 2018. Worth played for the Waves from 2005-2007, becoming one of the best shortstops in Pepperdine history. He hit .320 over his career, with seven home runs and 108 RBI. After being drafted in the second round by the Detroit Tigers in 2007, Worth made his Major League Baseball debut in May 2010 with the Tigers. Over his six-year MLB career, he had a .223 batting average with two home runs in 149 games played.
POSTSEASON HISTORY: Pepperdine won its only College World Series title in 1992.The Waves made their 30th appearance in NCAA postseason play in 2015, advancing to the NCAA Fullerton Regional final. In 2014 Pepperdine made its first ever NCAA Super Regional after winning the San Luis Obispo Regional Tournament. The Waves eventually fell to TCU, two games to one in the best-of-three series.
ABOUT PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY: Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won NCAA Division I championships in five different men's sports – one of just 18 schools to have accomplished this feat – and nine overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest undergraduate enrollment and is the only school not affiliated with a major conference. The Waves have earned the Division I-AAA All-Sports Trophy, an award based on postseason success that's given to the top non-football school, three times (most recently in 2011-12). Located in scenic Malibu, Calif., the university overlooks the Pacific Ocean and its campus and athletic facilities are regularly voted among the nation's most beautiful. Pepperdine, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ, ranks #49 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges.
