Box Score
MALIBU, Calif. --- Portland’s improbable baseball season continued on Sunday as the Pilots defeated the Pepperdine Waves 5-2 to pick up a three-game West Coast Conference sweep at Eddy D. Field Stadium, a place where UP had only won once in 32 previous tries. It’s also the seventh straight win for Portland, the fourth consecutive conference series win and it’s the third sweep of a WCC foe this season.
It’s surprisingly not Portland’s (27-9, 11-1 WCC) first sweep over Pepperdine (13-22, 3-5 WCC), a perennial conference power. The Pilots swept three games from the Waves at Joe Etzel Field in 2002.
Portland has now compiled the most wins since putting up 31 victories in 1991. The 11 conference wins are also the most for a UP squad since winning 16 in 2002, when the Pilots played a 30-game league slate. The current format has each WCC team playing a 21-game schedule.
UP used dominant pitching on Sunday as four Portland hurlers combined to strikeout 13 Pepperdine batters. Starter Owen Jones (3-1), a sophomore right-hander, led the way with a career-high nine K’s. Jones was masterful against the Waves, allowing just two runs on four hits in 6.0 innings. He walked only one.
Freshman Chris Johnson, senior Ed Wakefield and junior Chris Dennis each followed with a scoreless inning of relief.
Dennis picks up his third save in as many games and is now Portland’s all-time career leader with 12 saves, all registered this season. The transfer from Edmonds CC already set the program mark for saves in a single-season and he continues to add on to that record.
Freshman OF Nick Armenta’s successful visit to Malibu continued on Sunday as he went 2-for-4 with an RBI, two runs scored and his first career home run. His solo homer came in the top of the fourth inning and gave the Pilots a 2-0 advantage.
After Pepperdine had tied it with two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Pilots scored a go-ahead run in the top of the seventh and added two insurance runs in the top of the ninth. Junior 3B Matt Mardesich, who had doubled, scored the tie-breaking run in the seventh on a throwing error by the Waves.
Sophomore SS Kris Kauppila brought home one run in the ninth with a single, while junior 2B Riley Henricks made it a 5-2 game with a sacrifice fly.
Pepperdine starter Robert Dickmann (6-3) was solid for 8.0 innings, but his offense failed to give him much support. He struck out nine, was charged with four runs, gave up eight hits and walked two.
The Pilots, who were led by Kauppila’s three hits, out-hit the Waves once again, this time by a 10-5 margin. Armenta went 6-for-10 during the weekend, scored five times and tallied three RBI’s. UP hit .304 as a team against the Waves, while the pitchers held Pepperdine batters to a .248 clip.
Portland, which sits behind only 9-0 San Diego in the WCC standings, next steps out of conference for three games in Bellevue, Wash., next weekend. The Pilots are set to face the Seattle Redhawks on Friday at 3:00 p.m. UP will then play two on Saturday, facing BYU at 11:00 a.m. and the Redhawks at 2:00 p.m.
