Wave and Bruin Nines Open Season Against Alumni Stars

The Pepperdine and UCLA baseball teams will play their annual games against alumni teams, the Waves at noon Saturday at Eddy D. Field Stadium and the Bruins at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Pepperdine Coach Andy Lopez, who took over after Dave Gorrie retired last year, has 15 lettermen. Lopez, 34, spent the last six years as coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills. In 1987 he was the NCAA Division II West Region coach of the year.

Last year Pepperdine won another West Coast Athletic Conference championship but lost to Arizona State in the final of the NCAA West II Regional. The Waves were 37-24-1.

The Waves, ranked 17th nationally by Collegiate Baseball, will open the season at home against Westmont at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. Pepperdine is led by senior center fielder Rick Hirtensteiner and senior first baseman Scott Shockey, both first-team All-WCAC selections, and by two second-team all-conference choices: junior pitcher Britt Craven and junior shortstop Chris Martin.

Gary Adams is entering his 14th season as coach at UCLA, ranked 30th by Collegiate Baseball. His co-captains are senior infielder Scott Cline and senior outfielder Charlie Fiacco. Last year the Bruins were fifth in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division and finished 31-28 overall.

Expected to play for the UCLA alumni team are professional players Tim Leary, Mike Gallego, Matt Young, Dave Schmidt, Pat Dodson, Torey Lovullo, Shane Mack, Eric Nolte and Eric Karros.

Also on the program is an 11 a.m. alumni home run contest, a noon game featuring ex-Bruins no longer in baseball and the induction of the following former UCLA players in the school’s baseball Hall of Fame: Bill Bonham, Jim York, Jack Gifford, Ernie Rodriguez and Skip Rowland.

The No. 3 UCLA and No. 6 Pepperdine men’s volleyball teams, who have split two matches, will meet in a Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. contest at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Pepperdine’s Firestone Fieldhouse.

UCLA (6-1 overall) defeated Pepperdine (8-2 as the week began) in three games last week in the annual Kilgour Cup. Earlier, the Waves beat the Bruins in three in the UC Santa Barbara tournament.

UCLA won its 10th straight Kilgour Cup match and was led by senior captain Anthony Curci and junior All-American Trevor Schirman. Curci had 20 kills and a .472 hitting percentage, and Schirman had 10 kills, five blocks and made 53% of his spikes. Sophomore Geoff Hart had 17 kills and 10 digs for Pepperdine.

Eric Sato, a setter for the 1988 U.S. Olympic gold medalist team, is enrolled at Pepperdine. The question of his college eligibility will be decided by the NCAA.

The UCLA women’s basketball team, which has won five of its last six games, will play at Washington State (9-7 overall and 2-4 in Pac-10 play) on Friday night and Washington (12-6, 5-1) on Monday night.

ESPN will televise Monday’s game at 9 p.m., the first national telecast of a Pac-10 women’s regular-season game.

Last week the Bruins (8-7, 4-1) defeated Arizona State, 85-81, in overtime and Arizona, 93-69. Bruin junior forward Sandra Van Embricqs scored a game-high 24 points against ASU, and junior forward Althea Ford led the Bruins with 15 against the Wildcats.

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team (7-11 overall and 2-2 in the West Coast Athletic Conference at the start of the week) will play host to Loyola Marymount (11-7, 3-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

Last week the Waves split a pair of conference games, edging Portland, 61-58, but losing to Gonzaga, 71-50.