NCAA Baseball Regionals : Homer by Gonzalez Gives Waves a Win

Designated hitter Ruben Gonzalez hit an eighth-inning grand slam homer to lead Pepperdine to a 10-4 victory over Southwest Missouri State in the West II Regional Saturday night at Tempe, Ariz.

The homer by Gonzalez broke a 4-4 tie and enabled Pepperdine to remain unbeaten in the double-elimination tournament. The Waves beat defending national champion Arizona, 7-3, Friday night.

Pepperdine (48-10-3) jumped to an early lead with a run in the second on Chris Sloniger’s single and added another run in the third on a single by Gonzalez.

Southwest Missouri State scored in the fourth on a Mark Curtis sacrifice fly, but the Waves increased their lead to 4-1 in the fifth on RBI singles by Scott Shockey and Pete Kuld.

The Bears score again in the sixth on an RBI single by Brian Mahaffey and then tied the game in the seventh with two runners scoring on a throwing error by Waves starter Steve Dell’Amico.

CS Fullerton 11, Louisiana Tech 0--Cal State Fullerton, which received a strong pitching performance from Mike Harkey Friday to beat Tulane, 4-0, benefitted from an even better outing from Larry Casian Saturday as the Titans advanced to the final round of the South II Regional at New Orleans.

Casian, a senior left-hander, improved his record to 11-1 as he limited the Bulldogs to just three hits, walked only one and struck out seven. Harkey pitched a four-hitter, walked three and had seven strikeouts against Tulane.

Fullerton, which lost to Southern, 1-0, in the first round Thursday, has not been scored upon in the last 22 innings.

The top-seeded Titans (44-16) must defeat LSU twice today to win the title and advance to the College World Series. LSU remained unbeaten by defeating New Orleans, 3-0.

Fullerton blew the game open in the second inning when they scored six runs. Andy Mota’s two-run double capped the scoring. Ken Garcia went four hits and drove in three runs.

Stanford 12, UC Santa Barbara 5--Paul Carey drove in six runs with three hits, including a grand slam home run, to lead the top-seeded Cardinal to their second straight victory in the West I Regional at Stanford.

Stanford (46-16) overcame a 3-1 first-inning deficit with four runs in the fifth inning on Carey’s homer, and six more in the sixth to eliminate the Gauchos from the tournament. The Cardinal snapped a 5-5 tie in the sixth. The key hit was a two-run double by Ruben Amaro.

Santa Barbara (30-25-2) got a first-inning leadoff home run from Joe Kemp and a two-run homer by Quinn Mack in the fifth to temporarily tie the game.