Lions Need to Sweep Waves to Win WCC Title

At the start of the college baseball season, Loyola Marymount was ranked in all of the national polls. The Lions have since fallen out of the Top 25--to be replaced by rival Pepperdine--but they can demonstrate that the ratings were justified with a good showing in a season-ending three-game series against the Waves starting today.

The Lions (36-21) and Waves (40-13-1), ranked seventh and eighth in the two major polls, will be playing for the West Coast Conference title and the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals. The Lions go into today’s 2:30 p.m. game 2 1/2 games behind the Waves, who only need to win one game to clinch their fifth title in seven years.

The teams also play a doubleheader at noon on Saturday. All games are at Loyola. The Waves took two out of three in an earlier series at Malibu.

Even if Pepperdine clinches, the Lions are hopeful of gaining an at-large bid to the NCAA Regionals. Both teams are coming off losses, Loyola a 10-9 defeat Tuesday at UC Santa Barbara, Pepperdine 5-2 to Cal State Northridge. The Waves have lost three of their past four, but are 6-3-1 against Top 25 opponents.

Lion first baseman Joe Ciccarella is still in the running for the WCC triple crown. He leads in batting (.429) and runs batted in (64) and is second in home runs with 13, one behind St. Mary’s James Mouton. Ciccarella also leads the WCC in walks with 48. Overall the Lions lead the WCC with a .324 batting average and have wide margins in runs, home runs and RBIs.

Pepperdine is similarly dominant in pitching, with a team earned-run average of 2.88 that led the nation in the latest NCAA listings. In comparison, Loyola’s ERA of 4.52 is second-best in the conference.

Today’s probable pitching matchup is Loyola left-hander Jon Willard (7-3) vs. Pepperdine right-hander Patrick Ahearne (11-3). Lion reliever Joe Caruso leads the WCC with nine saves, while Chad Dembisky is tied with Ahearne with 11 victories and also has two saves.

NCAA pairings will be announced Monday morning.