Pepperdine Applies WCC Clincher to Loyola, 3-1 : Baseball: Late Lion rally falls short. Despite loss, Loyola is hopeful of earning berth to NCAA tournament.

All things considered, the mound on Loyola Marymount’s baseball field was as good a place as any for Pepperdine’s victory celebration.

Wave Coach Andy Lopez grinned widely after watching the Waves clinch the West Coast Conference title with a 3-1 victory over Loyola Marymount in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday.

“After a situation like this, I’d celebrate in a gutter somewhere,” Lopez said. “If we could clinch this thing on Mars, I’d go there.”

Pepperdine (41-15-1 overall, 25-10 in WCC play) won the championship by a half-game after Loyola Marymount won the second game, 10-6. The Waves will get the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

But it very easily could have been Loyola (38-22, 25-11) doing the celebrating.

The Lions, trailing by three runs in the opener, staged a furious rally in the bottom of the seventh.

After Darrel Deak singled home Joe Ciccarella, Loyola had the bases loaded with one out against Pepperdine starter Steve Duda (11-2).

With Pepperdine relief ace Steve Montgomery on the mound, pinch-hitter Anthony Napolitano smashed a hard one-hopper through the middle.

But Montgomery grabbed the ball and threw home for a force and catcher Scott Vollmer threw to first to retire Napolitano for the double play to end the game.

“To tell you the truth, I have no idea how I got that ball,” Montgomery said. “I saw the ball bounce, kind of took a swipe at it, and I found it in my glove.”

Ciccarella, who had three hits in the doubleheader to raise his average to .437--the best in Loyola Marymount history--couldn’t believe his team’s rally fell short.

“I thought we were going to win it right there,” Ciccarella said. “So did everyone in the dugout. But that’s kind of how our season has been--up and down.”

As it is, the Lions will have to hope for an at-large bid to one the NCAA’s eight six-team regionals. The pairings will be announced Monday at 10:30 a.m.

But with 38 victories in 60 games against Division I competition, Loyola Marymount appears to have a strong chance for a postseason berth.

“We’ve got a very good chance,” Loyola Coach Chris Smith said. “We’ve got very little control over our situation, but at least we made it exciting.”

Smith was upbeat about the Lions’ late-season surge.

“We showed some serious character toward the end of the year,” Smith said. “A lot of teams would have quit with all the injuries we’ve had, but now maybe we can get in the tourney and beat up on someone. We’re hot at the right time.”

Loyola pounded Pepperdine, 18-8, in the series opener Friday. But in Saturday’s first game, the Waves’ first three batters scored--on a double by Jud Blatchford, and singles by Dan Melendezand Chris Sheff.

Joe Caruso (9-5) shut Pepperdine out the rest of the way, but still took the loss.

In the second game, the Lions had 15 hits and tagged Pepperdine’s Jerry Aschoff (6-4) for four runs in the first. Deak led the barrage with three hits, including his 15th home run.

Left-hander Chris Spears (8-6) got the decision in the second game for Loyola.