11-1 Start Not Biggest Deal for Pepperdine

Six months after undergoing brain surgery for removal of a benign tumor and four months after returning home from the hospital, Pepperdine Coach Frank Sanchez has his team off to the best start in school history.

The Waves are 11-1 after pounding out a season-high 17 hits Tuesday in a 13-7 victory over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and have climbed to 18th in the Baseball America poll.

Pepperdine started 9-0 before losing to Fresno State, 5-3, on Saturday. The streak bettered the Waves’ 8-0 start in 1972.

In 1992, the year Pepperdine won the national title, the Waves were 8-4 after 12 games.

“We come to the field every day expecting to win,” said senior third baseman G.J. Raymundo, who went five for five and hit for the cycle Tuesday. “We don’t really know how it feels to lose. We could be down by three or five runs or up by a run or two. We play with the same type of attitude throughout the whole game.”

Sophomore catcher Dane Sardinha is batting .417 with six doubles and 17 runs batted in. Raymundo is batting .388 with 21 RBIs and freshman outfielder Woody Cliffords is batting .350 for a team that has a .301 average.

Senior right-hander Brad Tucker is 3-0 with a 2.10 earned-run average for a staff that has a 3.13 ERA. Junior right-hander Jay Gehrke has five saves and has not allowed a run in eight appearances, and senior left-hander Dave Reed is 3-0 in nine appearances as a setup man and has not given up a run.

The Waves have defeated Nevada, UCLA, California, Cal State Fullerton, Nevada Las Vegas, Fresno State and San Luis Obispo in their sizzling start. They have seven comeback victories.

Raymundo, an All-West Coast Conference selection last season, said Sanchez’s experience inspired the team and changed the coach’s style.

“He’s a little more laid back and I think it’s worked for the better for this team,” Raymundo said. “His attitude is reflected in how we’re playing. We’re relaxed, but working and playing hard and having fun. He’s setting a good example.”

Sanchez said Raymundo is mostly correct.

“First of all, when you’re [11-1], there’s not a lot to bark about,” said Sanchez, a former USC assistant who is 77-48 in two-plus seasons with the Waves. “No. 2, there are times I don’t say some things I’m thinking simply because it takes a lot of energy to talk. Sometimes, things are better left unsaid.

“And thirdly, we all have to remember this is just a game. Believe me, I was aware of that before the surgery, but that puts it even more in perspective.”

Pepperdine’s performance against local ranked nonconference opponents is especially important because it improves the Waves’ strength of schedule. In each of the last two seasons, Pepperdine finished second in the WCC, which does not have the reputation or overall strength of the Pacific 10 or Big West conferences. Consequently, the Waves were left out of the playoffs.

“The way to get in for sure is to win the conference,” said Sanchez, whose team plays host to UC Santa Barbara on Friday and opens WCC play March 12 against San Diego. “If we keep playing like we have so far, we’ll be in a position to do that.”

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Nineteenth-ranked USC (4-8) and UCLA (6-9) do not begin Pac-10 play until March 12, but their schedules this weekend have a distinctive conference feel.

USC plays host to Stanford and UCLA plays host to California in three-game sets that will not count in the conference standings.

The Pac-10 eliminated its two-division format when Portland State dropped baseball and wrestling, becoming the 40th Division I school and 12th in the 1990s to drop baseball.

No longer will USC and UCLA play six games against Stanford, Cal, Arizona, Arizona State and each other in a 30-game conference schedule. Instead, Washington, Washington State and Oregon State are part of a 24-game conference schedule that features one three-game series against each opponent.

“The conference really didn’t have a choice,” UCLA Coach Gary Adams said. “You can’t leave those three teams from the North floundering around.

“But I really liked the other format because with home-and-home series against each team, it was the fairest system for determining who really was the best.”

USC and UCLA will meet in a three-game nonconference series March 5-7.

Notes

Junior first baseman Jaeme Leal has six home runs in nine games for sixth-ranked Long Beach State (5-4), which plays today at Loyola Marymount (6-7). . . . Junior shortstop Ryan Owens was 11 for 21 in four games last week and helped No. 15 Cal State Fullerton (8-3) extend its winning streak to seven games. The Titans play host to USC tonight.