MALIBU, California – The Pepperdine baseball team is heading to the Lone Star state for the 2022 Kleberg Bank College Classic and a single game against Texas A&M Corpus-Christi. The Waves will play three games during the tournament, one each against Iowa, Wichita State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. All three tournament games will be played at Whataburger Field and Monday's game will be played at Chapman Field.
 
SCHEDULE: Friday, February 25 - Pepperdine vs. Iowa at 12 PM PT
Saturday, February 26 - Pepperdine vs. Wichita State at 12 PM PT
Sunday, February 27- Pepperdine at TAMUCC at 1 PM PT
Monday, February 28- Pepperdine at TAMUCC at 10 AM PT
 
COVERAGE: All three games at the 2022 Kleberg Bank College Classic will be streamed on FloBaseball with a subscription required. The single game on Monday, Feb. 28 against TAMUCC will be streamed on ESPN+. Links to broadcasts as well as live stats are available at pepperdinewaves.com.
 
SERIES VS. IOWA: Pepperdine and Iowa have not met prior to the 2022 season.
 
SERIES VS. WICHITA STATE: Pepperdine and Wichita State have met eight times with each side collecting four wins. The last meeting was in 2019, where the Waves defeated the Shockers 13-8 in the Angels College Classic at Diablo Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.
 
SERIES VS. TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI: The Waves and Islanders have not met prior to the 2022 season.
 
LAST GAME: On Tuesday, the Waves pulled off the comeback against #21 UCLA defeating the Bruins 7-5. John Peck hit a go-ahead grand slam in the top of the ninth inning to give Pepperdine the 6-3 lead. Peck was 3-for-5 with two doubles and a home run with five RBI. Jack Baird collected his second win of the season and Grant Georges notched the save.
 
HONORS: Greg Mehlhaff notched the season's first West Coast Conference weekly honors for the Pepperdine baseball team when he was named Player of the Week on Feb. 21. He had a career weekend in the opening-season series sweep against Villanova starting at third base and hitting .538 (7-for-13) with four RBI and six runs scored. Mehlhaff hit a two-run homer and a double on opening day.
 
LAST YEAR: The Waves had an overall record of 20-25, including a 12-15 WCC record. Reese Alexiades and Billy Cook were both named to the All-West Coast Conference first team. Additionally, Cook and Wyatt Young were selected in the 2021 MLB Draft. Cook was selected in the 10th round by the Baltimore Orioles, the highest-drafted player since 2017. Young was selected in the 15th round by the New York Mets and was also the 2022 John Scolinos Award recipient.
 
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 fifth in the West Coast Conference this year. The whole list is as follows: 1. Gonzaga; 2. BYU; 3. San Diego; 4. San Francisco; 5. Pepperdine; 6. Portland; 7. LMU; 8. Saint Mary's; 9. Santa Clara; 10. Pacific.
 
Sophomore infielder John Peck was named to the preseason All-WCC team.
 
THE SQUAD: The Waves return 30 players from last year's squad including eight key returners. Pepperdine welcomes nine true freshmen and three redshirt freshmen to the squad.
 
On the pitching side, sophomore Brandon Llewellyn led the team last year with five wins, a 3.38 ERA and 43 strikeouts. Additionally, Pepperdine returns junior Trevor Hinkel who made 14 appearances and started 12 games, senior Trevor Kniskern who made 11 appearances and had two saves and junior Nathan Diamond who had a 4.76 ERA and two saves.
 
The Waves bring back some top producers in sophomores Connor Bradshaw and John Peck, as well as junior Ryan Johnson. Bradshaw hit .291, posted 11 doubles, one home run, 12 RBIs, 23 runs scored and had a team-best eight stolen bases. Peck started all 45 games last season as a freshman and batted .256 with eight doubles, seven home runs, 19 RBI and 32 runs scored. Johnson led the team last season and was ranked second in the West Coast Conference in RBI with 45. He hit .237 with seven doubles, eight home runs and 29 runs scored.
 
COACHING STAFF: 2022 marks the seventh 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 Cameron Rowland in the summer of 2021 to fill the team's role as pitching coach. Rowland has coaching experience at the collegiate and high school levels, most notably spending the past four years with San Francisco State. 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 and also played in the 1979 CWS. The Waves made their 30th and most recent 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 10 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.