Pepperdine Led by Offense

Pepperdine came into its West Coast Conference series against Loyola Marymount with the best pitching in the league. The Lions were the top hitting team.

The Waves got good pitching all weekend but something else keyed their three-game sweep: clutch hitting.

Second baseman David Uribes brought home pinch-runner Damian Gomez with a game-winning single Sunday in a 5-4 victory in 10 innings. Pepperdine, 22-15 overall and 12-3 in the WCC, will play host to the best-of-three WCC championship series should the teams win their divisions.

While the Wave starters -- juniors Brandon Boesch and Jacob Barrack and senior Greg Ramirez -- have been a large part of the team’s 3.82 earned-run average, Pepperdine Coach Frank Sanchez said good defense has made it an improved team. On Sunday, Uribes made consecutive great plays on ground balls in the fifth inning to keep the Lions (21-16, 8-7) from putting together a big inning.

“I think we’ve got outstanding defense up the middle,” Sanchez said. “Our infielders have good range and they have great lateral movement on balls. That’s helped the development and confidence of our pitchers.”

Loyola had a frustrating three games. After being shut down by Ramirez on Friday, the Lions had 17 hits Saturday but left 14 runners on base in a 5-4 loss. On Sunday, the Lions did manage to rally throughout and forced extra innings with a ninth-inning RBI single by Jonathan Higashi.

Pepperdine’s Michael Beattie drew a walk to lead off the 10th. Patrick Rooney moved him to second with a bunt. After a lineout and a walk, Uribes hit a sharp single to center and Gomez scored ahead of center fielder Joe Frazee’s throw.

USC won its first series since February with an impressive three-game sweep of UCLA at Dedeaux Field. Spencer Gordon had a big weekend for the Trojans (18-17, 5-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference) with a tiebreaking home run Sunday in a 8-5 victory. Gordon also homered in Saturday’s 7-4 win, part of a weekend in which he went six for nine with six runs batted in.

Second-ranked Cal State Fullerton bounced back from a loss Friday to take the next two Big West Conference games at Cal State Northridge. Freshman Dustin Miller combined with two relievers to shut out the Matadors, 3-0, Saturday and the Titans (30-8, 5-1) got a home run and four RBIs each from Richie Burgos and Danny Dorn in Sunday’s 13-4 victory.

UC Riverside (27-9, 4-2) has won four in a row after sweeping UC Santa Barbara. The Highlanders had 20 hits Sunday, including four home runs, in an 18-4 victory.

Third baseman Adam Heether had a career-high five hits and scored three runs in powering 10th-ranked Long Beach State (23-12, 4-2) to an 11-1 win Sunday over UC Irvine (15-23, 3-3), giving the 49ers the series victory. On Friday, Abe Alvarez improved to 7-0 with eight strong innings in a 9-4 victory.

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Pepperdine clinched the regular-season Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men’s volleyball title with a 30-25, 30-18, 30-24 victory over Brigham Young before 2,453 Saturday night at Firestone Fieldhouse.

The Waves (22-4, 19-3) will play host to Long Beach in the first round of the conference tournament April 19. Northridge will travel to BYU and UC Irvine will visit Stanford. The highest-seeded teams remaining after the first round will play host to the semifinals and championship match.

UCLA (15-14) failed to qualify for the postseason but did record its 41st consecutive winning season under Coach Al Scates.