Happy Trails for Waves : College baseball: Rodriquez hits grand slam to rally Pepperdine past Texas, 5-4, and into College World Series title game.

Steve Rodriguez called it, “the Magic of Malibu.”

Pepperdine had cruised to victories in its first two games of the College World Series on the strength of a pitching staff that threw consecutive shutouts.

But Thursday night at Rosenblatt Stadium, the Waves found themselves in the uncommon and uncomfortable position of trailing by three runs after Texas produced a four-run seventh inning.

“It kind of shocked us to be down,” said Rodriguez, Pepperdine’s junior second baseman. “We were notorious all year for coming back, but I’ll be honest, I did ask myself, ‘How are we going to react to this?’ ”

Rodriguez punctuated the answer to that question in the bottom of the seventh with a grand slam against Texas ace Brooks Kieschnick. The blast gave Pepperdine a dramatic 5-4 victory before a crowd of 18,310 and advanced the Waves into Saturday’s championship game.

Pepperdine (47-11-1) will play for its first national title against the winner of tonight’s game between Cal State Fullerton and Miami.

“I think I just lived a childhood dream,” Rodriguez said. “I came to Omaha and hit a grand slam in the College World Series. It wasn’t the bottom of the ninth, but it was close enough.”

Pepperdine was leading, 1-0, when Texas first baseman Braxton Hickman ended the Waves’ series-record string of 24 scoreless innings with a three-run homer to right against reliever Steve Montgomery (10-2). Hickman was the first batter Montgomery faced after replacing starter Steve Duda, who allowed two hits in 6 1/3 innings.

The Longhorns added another run in the seventh when Calvin Murray scored from third on a wild pitch.

“I felt real confident that we were going to win this game,” Hickman said.

Mark Wasikowski and Scott Vollmer hit consecutive singles for Pepperdine to lead off the home half of the seventh. One out later, Eric Ekdahl singled--his first hit of the series--to load the bases.

Texas Coach Cliff Gustafson said he did not even consider replacing Kieschnick (11-3), despite the fact that Rodriguez had homered in Pepperdine’s series-opening victory against Wichita State.

“He was not a guy we thought represented that kind of threat at that point,” Gustafson said.

Kieschnick got ahead with a strike, then threw a fastball that Rodriguez hit over the left-field fence.

“I guess I proved him (Gustafson) wrong . . . ,” Rodriguez said. “As soon as I hit first base, I saw the outfielders drop their heads. I thought, ‘Oh my God, it went out!’ ”

Montgomery put two runners on in the eighth inning, but pitched out of jam by getting Hickman to hit into a double play. Montgomery retired the side in order in the ninth.

Dan Melendez had two doubles for Pepperdine, which finished with 10 hits. Vollmer, who drove in the Waves’ first run, and Wasikowski also had two hits.

“We’re playing with a lot of confidence right now,” Melendez said. “We’re going to be tough to beat if we keep playing like this.”

Pepperdine’s victory over Texas assured the Waves their best finish ever. Pepperdine finished third in its only other World Series appearance in 1979.