Pepperdine Comes Up Short in the 10th Inning to Long Beach State, 6-4

In a tuneup before its final West Coast Conference series of the regular season, Pepperdine lost to Long Beach State, 6-4, in 10 innings Wednesday at Pepperdine.

Left-hander Will Ohman (1-7), the last of five Wave pitchers, surrendered two runs in the 10th.

Ohman, who is expected to be drafted in June, boasts the best earned-run average on the Pepperdine staff at 2.91, but has blown several leads.

Pepperdine managed only seven hits against six Long Beach pitchers. A double by Jeremy White was the only extra-base hit for the Waves.

Darren Merrill (4-0) pitched the eighth and ninth innings, and Jason Marr earned his fifth save.

Paul Day of Long Beach hit his 11th home run for Long Beach, and former Cal State Northridge outfielder Terrmel Sledge hit a double.

Pepperdine (30-21, 19-8 in WCC play) turns its attention to a three-game series against San Francisco (33-22, 17-10) at home this weekend. The teams play a doubleheader Saturday and a single game Sunday.

The Waves, however, need help to win the conference title and claim an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.

Pepperdine is one-half game behind first-place Loyola Marymount (31-20-1, 19-7), which finishes its regular season with a three-game series against last-place Portland (9-35, 4-21) this weekend.

“All we can do at this point is go out and play our best and try to win three games this weekend,” Pepperdine Coach Frank Sanchez said. “Baseball is a crazy game and a lot of things can happen.

“Hopefully, when the dust settles, we will be the team in first place.”

Pepperdine led the conference race most of the season, but dropping a doubleheader to Gonzaga last Saturday put the Waves behind Loyola Marymount.

“It figures to be an emotion-filled weekend for several teams in the league,” Sanchez said. “We need to play well, win three games and put the pressure on Loyola Marymount to do the same thing.”