Pepperdine’s Shutout Over Long Beach State Is a Rarity

For a Pepperdine baseball team struggling to score runs, this couldn’t have come at a better time.

The Waves won an old-fashioned pitching duel in the most unlikely of circumstances.

If their 2-0 nonconference victory Tuesday afternoon at Eddy D. Field Stadium wasn’t surprising in itself, consider the competition.

Pepperdine (23-16) accomplished the feat against Long Beach State (23-12), which hadn’t been shut out in 174 games, a streak that stretched to late in the 1997 season when the 49ers lost to UC Santa Barbara, 8-0.

Moreover, the 49ers’ four hits were the fewest in a game this season.

And if that wasn’t enough, the pitcher who threw the first 8 1/3 innings for the Waves had struggled with inconsistency before Tuesday.

Steve Schenewerk entered the game with a 5.37 earned-run average. He gave up five earned runs in three innings in an 8-7 victory over Long Beach last week at Blair Field in Long Beach.

This time, Schenewerk came through with a brilliant performance.

He induced 13 ground-ball outs, didn’t allow a baserunner beyond second base and finished with seven strikeouts.

“He was masterful today,” said Coach Frank Sanchez of Pepperdine.

Schenewerk wouldn’t go so far as to call it his best effort of the season. After all, he did pitch a complete game in an 8-2 victory over California in February.

But he agreed it was his best outing since then.

It certainly couldn’t have come at a more crucial point in the season for the Waves, who dropped two of three games against rival Loyola Marymount last weekend.

“It was an important game after we lost the last two to Loyola Marymount,” Schenewerk said. “If we had lost this, things would’ve snowballed. I know it would’ve.”

He said the emotional lift should carry through to Friday and Saturday, when the Waves visit San Francisco for a three-game West Coast Conference series.

Sanchez said there is no telling what the victory will mean to Pepperdine’s hopes of receiving an at-large NCAA playoff berth if the Waves do not win the conference title.

It was Pepperdine’s second victory over a top-25 team, both against the 49ers. Long Beach is ranked No. 20 by Collegiate Baseball and Baseball Weekly.

While Pepperdine continued to struggle at the plate, there was a promising sign.

It came when shortstop Tony Garcia, who entered the game with a .179 batting average and no hits in his previous 21 at-bats, led off the sixth inning with a single. He wound up scoring the game-winning run two batters later when Austin Evans grounded into a fielder’s choice at second.