Pepperdine Blanks Toreros Twice

Pat Crema turned in the kind of performance that should have rendered a better fate. He pitched a two-hitter against 11th-ranked Pepperdine, but a two-run homer was all the Waves (21-8-1, 10-3) needed to score a 2-0 victory over the University of San Diego (16-15, 8-6) in the first game of a West Coast Conference doubleheader.

Crema (4-2) allowed his only two hits in the third inning, a single to Chris Milton and Chris Sheff’s sixth home run of the season.

Crema struck out five and walked none. Pepperdine’s only other baserunner boarded on a fifth-inning error.

Mike Saipe (4-2) was tagged with the loss in the second game, a 5-0 loss. Pepperdine’s Dan Melendez had a three-run homer in a five-run fifth inning.

San Diego State improved its record to 21-7, 5-1 in the WAC, with a doubleheader sweep of Utah, 4-1 and 5-3.

In the first game, Jason Ledford hit a bases-loaded double in the fifth to break a 1-1 tie.

Utah fell to 5-18, 0-3.

TENNIS

UC Santa Barbara defeated University of San Diego, 4-2, in the consolation match of the Blue-Gray men’s tennis classic in Montgomery, Ala. But that wasn’t the worst news for the Toreros, who may have lost Jose Luis Noriega, the No. 1-ranked singles player in the country, until the NCAA tournament. USD Coach Ed Collins said Noriega is suffering from an undetermined shoulder injury. He played Friday in the Toreros’ 6-3 loss to Drake, but did not see action Saturday. UCSB’s 19th-ranked David Decret defeated Frederik Aksater, 6-3, 6-1 and 20th-ranked Laszlo Markovitz defeated Kevin Bradley, 6-2, 6-3. Ignacio Martinez and Robbie Seward won at No. 3 and 5 singles to give the 23rd-ranked Toreros (10-4) their two victories.

Third-seeded San Diego State scored a 5-1 victory over second-seeded Mississippi to advance to today’s fifth-place match--against top-seeded UC Irvine--at the Marriott Tennis Classic in Irvine.

Chris Numbers defeated Mike Brown, 6-4, 6-4, giving Numbers a 12-1 record in dual matches.

Kerry Safdie clinched the match with a 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 victory over Ivan Trevenio. Other SDSU winners were Michael Sass, Jeff Belloli and Scott Hansen.

SDSU (12-3) is ranked 25th nationally.

SOFTBALL

Point Loma Nazarene College dropped a Golden State Athletic Conference doubleheader at Azusa Pacific, 11-1 and 14-4. In the second game for PLNC (8-8, 2-6), Missy Talbert went two for three with a double and a run scored and Erin Gaut went two for three with an RBI and a run scored. Azusa improved to 14-12, 4-2.

After defeating Stanford in its first game at the Pioneer Classic at Cal State Hayward, UC San Diego lost its next four, including a 4-0 decision to UC Riverside and a 1-0 decision to Cal State Stanislaus on Saturday.

CREW

USD swept all four races from Loyola Marymount at Marina Del Rey, giving the Toreros their first dual sweep in school history.

TRACK

Point Loma Nazarene’s Vanessa Couch, Dzifa Mackwashie and Robert Keter each set school records at the Point Loma Invitational.

Couch won the women’s 5,000 meters in 17 minutes, 18.14 seconds, which was 2:18 faster than second-place teammate Lupe Ambriz (19:36.24).

Mackwashie won the women’s 100 in 12.44, a half-second faster than teammate Anna Rydell.

Keter won the men’s 800 in 1:50.74, just ahead of San Diego Track Club’s Paul Greer (1:51.14).