MALIBU, California – The Pepperdine baseball team and San Francisco completed games one and two of their West Coast Conference series on Friday afternoon at Eddy D. Field Stadium. Game one with the Waves and Dons was postponed Thursday night in the top of the 13th inning tied at 3-3 due to the sun setting in Malibu.
Pepperdine (18-15, 7-7) and San Francisco (18-20, 7-7) resumed game one on Friday afternoon where the Waves took the 4-3 win on a walk-off single to center field by
Charles Masino in the bottom of the 14th inning
. The last time the Waves went to 14 innings was in 2017 against Saint Mary's. In game two, the Dons evened the series with a 7-0 win.
GAME ONE BIG WAVES
- Sophomore infielder Zach Chonkich (Redlands, Calif./Redlands HS) tied his career-high with three hits and scored one run.
- Sophomore designated hitter Charles Masino (Newbury Park, Calif./Oaks Christian HS) went 2-for-5 with one RBI and scored a run.
- Sophomore infielder Nolan Lingley (Tracy, Calif./Ripon Christian School) was also 2-for-5.
- Senior LHP Grant Georges (Flower Mound, Texas/Flower Mound HS) threw 2.0 innings while only giving up one hit and had a career-high four strikeouts. Georges collected his first win of the season.
GAME ONE RECAP
With two outs in the bottom of the third inning, Masino doubled down the right- field line.
Quintt Landis (Westlake Village, Calif./Oaks Christian HS) followed with a double of his own and scored Masino to take a 1-0 lead.
Mike Malinchak (Delray Beach, Fla./American Heritage HS) sent an RBI single to center field to give the Waves a 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the fourth inning,
Ryan Johnson (Tempe, Ariz./Seton Catholic HS) led off with a double down the left-field line. Chonkich hit an infield single that advanced Johnson to third. A double play ground ball to the right side of the field scored Johnson and made it 3-0.
In the top of the sixth inning, the Dons started to make a comeback and scored two runs on two doubles to make it 3-2. In the top of the ninth inning, with one out and the bases loaded for the Dons, Mario DeMera of San Francisco hit a single to left field and brought in the game-tying run at 3-3.
After four scoreless extra innings and a 23-hour gap between innings 12 and 13, in the bottom of the 14th, Chonkich led off with a double to left. Chonkich advanced to third on a fly ball to right field. The Dons intentionally walked
Cam Conley (Lincoln University, Pa./Malvern Prep) to give the Waves runners on the corners. Lingley was hit by a pitch, which loaded the bases with one out. Masino roped a blooper up the middle that dropped in front of the Dons' center fielder and scored Chonkich to give the Waves the win.
GAME TWO BIG WAVES
- Masino had one hit and increased his hitting streak to 14 games. Masino is on a 16-game on base streak.
- Freshman Cole Sheehan (Phoenix, Ariz./Mountain Pointe HS) had one hit on the day.
GAME TWO RECAP
In the top of the third inning, the Dons took an early 1-0 lead on a home run to right field. San Francisco added another run in the top of the fourth inning on an RBI single to right field and made it 2-0.
In the top of the sixth inning, San Francisco hit a single to right field that scored a run to make it 3-0. After the first out, the Dons roped a single to center field and scored the fourth run of the game to increase the lead at 4-0. With one out in the top of the eighth inning, Kyle Knell of San Francisco hit a sacrifice fly to right field and added to the Dons' lead at 5-0.
San Francisco added two more runs on three hits in the top of the ninth inning to make it 7-0. The Dons held onto the win in the bottom of the ninth after a fly out to right field, a strikeout and a short play at second base to get a force out after a walk to end the game and collect the win.
UP NEXT
Pepperdine and San Francisco will meet for the rubber match on Saturday, April 16, with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. The game will be live on the WCC Network.
