Fresno State Gets No Relief and Pepperdine Wins, 5-4

Chris Sheff’s single to right with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning drove home Dan Melendez to give Pepperdine a 5-4 victory over Fresno State Friday in the first round of the NCAA Division I West Regional.

It was Pepperdine’s first victory in postseason play since since 1988, ending a string of six losses.

Pepperdine (41-10-1), seeded third in the regional, extended its winning streak to 13 games. The Waves, champions of the West Coast Conference, have won 20 of their last 21 games.

With one out in the 10th, Melendez beat out a grounder off reliever Mike Salazar (7-7). David Main singled to center, Melendez stopping at second. Tommy Minor replaced Salazar and gave up Sheff’s third hit of the game.

Steve Montgomery (9-2) struck out five in 3 2/3 innings of shutout relief for the victory.

Big West Conference runner-up Fresno State (37-19), seeded fourth, took a 3-0 lead in the second inning on Eric Greene’s two-run single and an RBI grounder by Philip Romero.

Pepperdine scored two runs in the second on Kevin Dell’Amico’s sacrifice fly and Scott Vollmer’s single, then took a 4-3 lead in the fourth on Vollmer’s sacrifice fly and a single by Eric Ekdahl.

Fresno State tied the score in the seventh when Romero doubled, went to third on a single and scored on Brant Brown’s groundout.

The Bulldogs, though, squandered several other scoring opportunities. They wasted a one-out triple by Tom Costic in the fourth inning, a leadoff triple by Romero in the fifth and a leadoff double by Romero in the ninth, his fourth hit.