Pepperdine Nips Loyola Twice to Win WCAC

On a brilliant Malibu afternoon the lights went out on Loyola Marymount’s conference baseball title hopes. The Lions dropped two seven-inning, one-run games to Pepperdine, 5-4 and 3-2.

That made it three straight for the Waves over Loyola and gave them the West Coast Athletic Conference title. The teams play again today in Malibu, but the Lions will be playing only for pride and playoff seeding.

The Pepperdine victories Saturday, coupled with Friday’s 3-0 win, raised the Waves to 20-3 in the WCAC. The Lions are 17-5. Pepperdine is 40-13-1 overall while Loyola is 36-22.

Pepperdine’s solid pitching and timely hitting, and the heroics of Rick Hirtensteiner, gave Coach Andy Lopez the title in his first year after leaving Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Loyola made a valiant comeback in the first game to tie it at 4-all in the fourth inning, then fell apart and surrendered the winning run without a hit in the sixth.

Hirtensteiner started and finished things for the Waves. Leading off the bottom of the first, he greeted Kalani Bush with a home run over the 400-foot sign in right-center.

Hirtensteiner was in the middle of a three-run rally in the third inning, scoring when Lions centerfielder Brian Turang started back on a pop fly by Jim Doyle and couldn’t recover. The ball fell for a double, scoring two runs. Doyle later scored from third when reliever Brian Clancy, facing his first batter, bounced a wild pitch.

When pinch hitter Robert Cannon opened the top of the seventh with a walk, Hirtensteiner was brought in from center to pitch. He got pinch hitter Joe Bellezzo--sent in to sacrifice--on a foul pop to the catcher, then picked off Cannon to snuff the Lions and earn his third save.

Loyola’s poor showing in the final innings negated a fourth-inning rally that knocked out the Waves’ Sean Casey. Trailing, 4-1, the Lions scored twice as Greg Wall opened with a double and scored two batters later on Turang’s eighth homer of the season. The tying run came when Kevin Van de Brake singled and scored on Tim Williams’ double, just beating a throw home.

Give Loyola an assist on Pepperdine’s winning run in the sixth. Richard Barnwell led off with a walk, stole second and came all the way around to score as the Lions made two throwing errors.

Bush again failed to make it past the third inning in his fourth try for his 11th win. Clancy took the loss, evening his record at 4-4. Pepperdine reliever Randy Hacker got the win, improving to 3-1.

Runs were at a premium in the nightcap as Loyola’s Jon Willard and Pepperdine’s Wayne Helm hooked up in a good duel. Helm finished with a three-hitter for his sixth win. Lopez said Helm is normally his Sunday pitcher. “He’s been doing real well the last few times out. I felt we were playing well (and would) try to clinch it today.”

Hirtensteiner and Barnwell were again in the middle of the action.

Pepperdine took advantage of a two-out walk of Hirtensteiner to score the first run in the third when Doyle and Matt Howard followed with singles.

The Lions tied it in the top of the fourth, but Pepperdine broke the tie in the bottom of the inning when Barnwell hammered his ninth homer. The Lions manufactured a run without a hit in the sixth to tie the game again when Joe Ciccarella walked, stole second, was sacrificed to third and scored on Miah Bradbury’s sacrifice fly.

Loyola left runners on second and third in the second and wasted Turang’s leadoff double in the fifth, while Pepperdine failed to capitalize on a one-out, bases-loaded situation in the sixth.

The stalemate was broken when Hirtensteiner opened the bottom of the seventh with a single, was sacrificed to second and scored the game-winner on Barnwell’s solid two-out single.

In previous weeks Barnwell has won two games with last-at-bat home runs. “He’s clutched up for us several times,” Lopez said. “That at-bat didn’t surprise me all that much.”

Darryl Scott (5-7), in relief of Willard, was the hard-luck loser.

Loyola is now a team of streaks in the wrong direction. Along with the three-game losing streak, catcher Bradbury saw his hitting streak stopped at 21 games. Pepperdine, meanwhile, has won 14 straight games and six straight WCAC titles.