Ekdahl’s Hard Work Gives Waves a Boost : Shortstop Doesn’t Let Lack of Size Deter Him

When you don’t have a cannon-like arm, blazing speed or booming bat, it helps to approach the game of baseball like Pepperdine shortstop Eric Ekdahl, the epitome of hard-nosed players.

Ekdahl does his pre-game stretching exercises in the dirt so he can “feel like I’m into the game from the get-go.” He wears thick eye-black not only to reduce glare but because it’s part of his game face.

“I feel naked without it,” Ekdahl said.

Ekdahl will dive for any grounder near him and run out every ground ball. He’ll lean into a fastball and let it hit him on the shoulder if his team needs a runner.

“I don’t care how pretty I look as long as I make the play and help the team,” said Ekdahl, a 5-foot-8, 165-pound senior. “I give everything I’ve got, and if I come out of a game with a clean uniform, I probably didn’t play hard enough.”

These attributes have served Ekdahl well. A three-sport (football, soccer, baseball) standout at Mission Viejo High School, Ekdahl has been a Wave starter since the middle of his freshman season and was the team’s third-leading hitter (.307) entering Wednesday’s game against Chapman.

But a big heart gets you only so far in this game, as Ekdahl learned last June. When professional baseball raided Pepperdine’s 1992 national championship team, drafting and signing eight of his teammates, Ekdahl felt like the kid who always gets chosen last for school-yard pickup games.

Left out.

“It was like I was losing my friends,” Ekdahl said.

The fact that he wasn’t drafted didn’t shock Ekdahl, whose home run--his only one of the season--was the decisive run in Pepperdine’s 3-2 College World Series championship-game victory against Cal State Fullerton.

But it did provide another reality check for a diminutive college student-athlete entering his senior year.

“Baseball has taught me a lot and got me an education,” said Ekdahl, on course to graduate with a degree in communications next winter. “But there comes a point when you have to move on.

“I still might get drafted, but I’m not dedicating my whole life to pro ball. I’ll have other options, things I can fall back on. It’s not going to crush me if I don’t get drafted this year.”

Ekdahl’s outlook on life and his baseball career helped him keep last season’s championship-game heroics in perspective.

His homer into the left-field bleachers in Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium was as improbable a hit as Bucky Dent’s 1978 Shot Heard ‘Round New England, the three-run homer that gave the Yankees an American League East playoff victory over the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park.

Ekdahl, the No. 9 batter and a .229 hitter last season, managed to send Paco Chavez’s fastball over the fence in the fifth inning despite a stiff breeze blowing in from left. That gave the Waves a 3-1 lead.

“It was almost like a dream,” Ekdahl said. “I was numb.”

Ekdahl wasn’t able to fully relish the moment. The ball actually bounced from the bleachers back onto the field, and as Ekdahl rounded first, he wasn’t sure if he had homered.

“I sprinted around first and into second, looking for the umpire to twirl his hand signifying a home run, but there was some doubt in my mind,” Ekdahl said. “I was looking around, making sure no one was going to tag me out. I never got to enjoy the home run trot.”

The homer, which was overshadowed by second baseman Steve Rodriguez’s game-saving, diving stop of Tony Banks’ eighth-inning grounder with a runner on third, didn’t exactly make Ekdahl an instant celebrity around campus.

“I was just known as ‘The guy who hit the home run,’ not a name,” Ekdahl said. “It didn’t bring me a lot of notoriety. The only thing I have from that game is a ring, but other than that, personally, it hasn’t affected me at all. I’m not hitting in the four-hole, and my role is still to get base hits and be hit in by someone else.”

Ekdahl, who moved from the bottom of the order to the lead-off spot early this season, has been solid in that role. He has the second-best on-base percentage (.408) among Pepperdine starters and is second on the team in runs with 24.

Ekdahl has 16 runs batted in, 14 walks and only 11 strikeouts in 126 plate appearances and has helped the Waves to a 21-10 record, 10-2 in the West Coast Conference entering this weekend’s series against second-place San Diego.

“He has been a strong catalyst for us,” Wave Coach Andy Lopez said. “He had a problem with strikeouts the last few years, but he’s made the most improvement on the team in that area. His defense has also been steady, which is an improvement over last season.

“He doesn’t look real great, he’s not 6 feet 2, and he doesn’t do spectacular things, but day in and day out, he does the job. He’s a throwback, a guy who plays hard all the time and isn’t caught up in the image of the game.”

Ekdahl reminds Lopez of an infielder he coached at Cal State Dominguez Hills, a 5-7 fellow named Craig Grebeck. Although Grebeck was never drafted, he recently beat out Steve Sax for the Chicago White Sox’s starting second-base job.

“I bring Craig here to work out during the off-season for one reason, so the guys don’t get discouraged by their size,” Lopez said. “Eric is hard to project (as a pro prospect), but so was Craig.”

Lopez doesn’t rule out the possibility of Ekdahl playing pro ball, and he said scouts are starting to ask about him.

“His intensity has picked up, and people have definitely taken notice, which is nice,” Lopez said. “Because he’s not a big guy, he needs to catch someone’s eye with his intensity.”

Lopez noticed it immediately, during Ekdahl’s freshman season. The Waves had an All-American shortstop in Chris Martin, so Ekdahl began the year on the bench, but he was always among the most active and vocal players in the dugout.

When left fielder Jeff Pearce suffered an ankle injury, Lopez asked Ekdahl if he had ever played outfield.

Ekdahl’s response: Sure.

Ekdahl’s outfield experience: None.

“I just wanted to play, somehow, some way,” Ekdahl said.

Lopez put Ekdahl in left field, and Ekdahl went on to hit .279 with six doubles, 19 runs and 12 RBIs. He moved to shortstop as a sophomore and hit .325 with 41 runs and 24 RBIs, but dipped to .231 last season.

Lopez eventually discovered Ekdahl had lied to him during his freshman year, but that wasn’t so surprising, considering Ekdahl’s honorable intentions.

“That’s Eric,” Lopez said.