Pepperdine Never Wavers : NCAA final: Pitching and defense help the Waves hold off the Titans, 3-2, for their first baseball championship.

The grounder that Tony Banks ripped toward the second-base hole with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning Saturday had tie ballgame written all over it.

Then Banks, Cal State Fullerton’s left fielder, saw Pepperdine second baseman Steve Rodriguez hurl his body toward the ball. Suddenly, Banks had this sinking feeling.

“After I saw him dive, with the way things were going, I figured he would catch it,” Banks said.

Things were going awfully well for the Waves in the College World Series championship game, and sure enough, Banks was right.

Rodriguez, his body parallel to the ground and his left arm fully extended, gloved Banks’ shot, got to his feet and threw to Dan Melendez at first to end the inning.

The play--the last of a series of outstanding defensive plays--stranded Jeremy Carr at third and preserved Pepperdine’s thrilling 3-2 victory over Fullerton in the national championship game in front of 17,962 in Rosenblatt Stadium. Pepperdine has won two NCAA championships this year; the Waves beat Stanford in the volleyball final in April.

The Waves (48-11-1) were seeded seventh in the series but became the second consecutive team, following Louisiana State in 1991, to go undefeated (4-0) in Omaha. The Titans (46-17) fought through the losers’ bracket and beat Florida State and Miami twice to reach the final for the third time. Fullerton won national championships in 1979 and ’84.

“When we came in as a seventh seed, I’ll say it now, our guys took it as a slap in the face,” Pepperdine fourth-year Coach Andy Lopez said. “From an image standpoint, it would have been nice to be seeded higher, but what can I say? Pepperdine is the 1992 College World Series champion.”

Patrick Ahearne, whose motion, mannerisms and uniform number--55--match that of Dodger pitcher Orel Hershiser, gave up three hits over 6 2/3 innings for his second series victory. Bullpen ace Steve Montgomery, a Fountain Valley High School graduate, survived a rocky eighth inning and retired the Titans in the ninth for the save.

Wave shortstop and No. 9 batter Eric Ekdahl, a Mission Viejo High graduate who had a .229 average and only 14 runs batted in entering the championship game, knocked a Paco Chavez pitch into the left-field bleachers for his first home run of the season, and a 3-1 Pepperdine lead. The homer proved to be the game’s decisive run.

But defense is the reason a national championship baseball banner will be hanging in Pepperdine’s gym for the first time in 54 years.

Fullerton designated hitter Craig Fairbrother led off the third inning with a hard grounder that seemed headed for center field. But Ekdahl, the Wave shortstop, dived to his left, made the catch and threw to first in time to catch Fairbrother.

Fullerton right fielder Jeremy Carr’s attempt to advance from second to third on a low pitch that bounced away from Wave catcher Scott Vollmer was snuffed out when Vollmer, an Irvine High graduate, rifled a throw to third baseman Mark Wasikowski in time to catch Carr.

After scoring in the fourth, the Titans had runners on first and second with one out. Banks hit another hard grounder to the left of Rodriguez, which the second baseman turned into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.

In the fifth inning, first baseman Melendez scooped up Wasikowski’s one-hop throw on Nate Rodriquez’s grounder.

In the seventh, right fielder Matt McElreath, who attended Fullerton in 1989, charged Fairbrother’s single and made a strong throw to home, preventing Banks from scoring from second. D.C. Olsen struck out to end the inning.

Then Rodriguez made a spectacular play on Banks’ grounder in the eighth.

“They were unbelievable,” Titan catcher Jason Moler said. “They made the kinds of plays a team has to make to win a national championship. They didn’t get here because they can’t play defense. You have to earn everything in a national championship game, but I didn’t think they’d make that many great plays.”

The play capped a dream week for Rodriguez. His grand slam in the seventh inning gave Pepperdine a 5-4 victory over Texas Thursday night, and he was the hero again Saturday.

“I love playing defense--I like to hit, but I’ll make my money because of defense some day,” said Rodriguez, a fifth-round draft pick of the Red Sox. “Given the choice between a home run or a diving play on defense, I’d take the dive. There’s something about playing defense. I can’t describe it.”

Rodriguez didn’t think he’d have to dive for Banks’ grounder, but it got to him quicker than he anticipated.

“With all the rain they had Friday night (during the Miami-Fullerton semifinal) they put this stuff on the infield called Turface, which is a fancy word for cat litter,” Rodriguez said. “It makes balls go a little faster, and that one skipped on me. I dove hard and heard the roar of the crowd before I hit the ground. I thought, ‘Oh-oh, I caught the thing,’ and got up and threw it to first.”

Fullerton had rallied in the eighth when Montgomery hit Rodriquez and Carr with pitches to open the inning. Chris Powell sacrificed the runners up, and Pepperdine intentionally walked Phil Nevin, the series’ most outstanding player, to load the bases.

Moler’s sacrifice fly to right scored Carr to make it 3-2, but Rodriguez’s play on Banks’ grounder ended the threat. Montgomery retired the Titans in order in the ninth, and a human Wave rolled onto the field, as Pepperdine players piled on each other in celebration.

“You can’t carry around an MVP trophy like you can a national championship ring--I’d trade all the trophies for that,” said Nevin, who finished with a .526 (10 for 19) series average, two homers, two doubles and 11 RBIs. “But as hard as it is to say it, I’m happy for Dan (Melendez) and Steve (Rodriguez). They’re good friends of mine, and they’re a close-knit group. They’ve been together for three years and worked hard for this.”

Pepperdine jumped on Fullerton starter Dan Naulty for two runs in the first, on David Main’s RBI double and Wasikowski’s RBI single, and the Waves could have had more if not for a gutty play by Moler, the Titan catcher.

With Wasikowski on second, Vollmer grounded a ball to the shortstop hole that Rodriquez dived for and knocked down. Wasikowski tried to score, and Rodriquez made an off-balance, one-hop throw to the plate.

As Wasikowski crashed into Moler and the ball bounced past the catcher, Moler flipped Wasikowski over his head and beyond the plate. Naulty, backing up, caught the ball and tagged out Wasikowski to end the inning.

Chavez replaced Naulty to start the second and pitched well, allowing three hits in 5 2/3 innings. But one of the hits was Ekdahl’s homer, which reached the bleachers despite a stiff breeze blowing from left to right.

Chris Powell tied a series record with his 11th run when he scored on a passed ball in the fourth inning and Chad Dembisky pitched 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, but the Titans couldn’t come up with the clutch hit.