MALIBU, Calif. –  The Pepperdine baseball team is heading to the Pacific Northwest to open up West Coast Conference play at Portland with a three-game series beginning on Friday, March 17 and concluding on Sunday, March 19.
 
SCHEDULE:
Friday, March 17 - Pepperdine (5-9) at Portland (10-6) at 6 PM
Saturday, March 18 - Pepperdine at Portland at 3 PM
Sunday, March 19 - Pepperdine at Portland at 1 PM
 
COVERAGE: All three games will be broadcasted live on the WCC Network. Links to broadcasts as well as live stats are available at pepperdinewaves.com.
 
SERIES VS. PORTLAND: Pepperdine has the overall series lead against Portland, 77-22. Last season, the Waves and Pilots matched up for the final WCC three-game series, with Pepperdine collecting the series 2-1 at Eddy D. Field Stadium.
 
LAST GAME: On Monday, Pepperdine dropped a midweek contest to CSUN, 8-3 at Eddy D. Field Stadium. The Waves fell behind 6-0 to the Matadors after the fourth inning, but cut the deficit in half in the sixth. CSUN then added two more runs in the top of the ninth. Jack Basseer was 1-for-2 and had two RBI. Devon Walczykowski had one RBI and one walk on the day.
 
HONORS: Ryan Johnson notched the season's first West Coast Conference weekly honors for the Pepperdine baseball team when he was named Player of the Week on March 6. He batted a .571 and had an 11 RBI week, while posting back-to-back games with two home runs and five RBI to tie a career-high in RBI. In four appearances last week, Johnson only had two strikeouts and scored seven runs. He ended the week with five homers and a double.
 
NCAA LEADERBOARD: Ryan Johnson currently sits seventh on the NCAA leaders list in slugging percentage with .957.
 
WCC LEADERS: The Waves rank top-five in three different categories on the WCC leaderboards. Pepperdine is tied first in the conference in home runs (17), tied fourth in hits (110) and fifth in RBI (69).
Pepperdine also has multiple Waves in the top-20 in WCC stats. Ryan Johnson leads the conference in on-base percentage (.541), tied for first in home runs (seven) second in slugging percentage (.957), tied for second in RBI (16) and fourth in batting average (.426). Greg Mehlhaff is tied eighth in home runs (three) and tied 13th in RBI (12). John Peck is also tied eighth in home runs (three). Jack Basseer is tied 19th in RBI with 10. On the pitching side, Shane Telfer is tied third in wins (two), fifth in ERA (2.45) and 12th in strikeouts (19).