NCAA West I Regional Baseball : Pepperdine Stays Alive, Beats Oregon State, 6-1

Pepperdine rediscovered the base hit Saturday and scored a 6-1 victory over Oregon State in the NCAA West I Regional at the Sunken Diamond.

The Waves, who stranded 12 runners in a 4-2 loss to Nebraska Friday, erupted for six runs in the first two innings to eliminate the Beavers. Pepperdine is 50-14. Oregon State finished the season 34-17.

Today, Pepperdine gets a noon rematch with Nebraska (45-23) for the right to advance to the regional final against Stanford, which rallied to beat the Cornhuskers, 9-8, on John Ramos’ two-run single in the bottom of the ninth inning in Saturday’s second game. Stanford is unbeaten in the tournament.

The winner of the Pepperdine-Nebraska game comes back to meet the Cardinal (45-12) at 4 p.m. to decide the region’s representative in the College World Series at Omaha.

Should the Pepperdine-Nebraska winner beat the Cardinal today, the teams would play again Monday at 1 p.m.

Pepperdine, which had 10 hits, made it a short day for its starter, Scott Marrett (14-0). Ahead 6-0 after three innings, Pepperdine Coach Dave Gorrie brought in freshman Patrick Dubar to finish off the Beavers.

Dubar (2-0), whose longest previous stint was two innings, earned the victory by limiting Oregon State to two hits over six innings. Dubar allowed an earned run in the sixth and finished with four strikeouts and two walks.

“I knew I had to go the distance because we’ll need the rest of our pitching for the rest of the tournament,” Dubar said. “I knew if I didn’t go the whole way it would hurt the team, not necessarily that we’d lose but because we’d have to use more pitching.”

Oregon State said it was insulted by the insertion of Dubar for the purpose of saving Marrett. “They showed us no respect,” said David Brundage, who went the distance in a losing effort.

“It was a slap in our face,” Beaver Coach Jack Riley added. “He (Gorrie) has more guts than I do.”

Gorrie defended the decision. “It wasn’t a careless risk,” he said. “Pat’s been throwing very well lately, and we felt he could hold the fort.”

Marrett recorded seven of his nine outs on ground balls, allowed two hits and may pitch today. Mike Fetters (9-4) is also available.

Steve Erickson hit his fifth home run of the season in the bottom of the first inning. He also doubled in the fourth and walked in the sixth.

The Waves scored five times with two out in the second inning to complete their scoring. Shortstop Nezi Balelo had a two-run single and Erickson, Andy Stankiewicz and Brad Bierley had one-run singles.