Baseball rallies in 12th inning to beat Pepperdine

After losing their first weekend series of the season, No. 10 USC (27-9) battled the Pepperdine Waves (20-18) yesterday to eventually come away with a 2-0 victory after 11 innings of scoreless baseball.

Junior pitcher Kyle Davis             (1-0, 5.11 ERA), who has struggled this season after having a stellar sophomore year with a 1.12 ERA, went two innings before being replaced by junior Bernardo Flores in the bottom of the third inning. Flores managed to keep the Pepperdine offensive in check with six strikeouts and four innings pitched as well as prevented any serious scoring threats.

Much of the Trojan offense was characterized by hard-hit balls launched directly toward fielders that stranded base runners, such as during the top of the fifth inning when senior Dante Flores scorched one up the middle that was caught during an outstanding dive and toss by Pepperdine’s Manny Jefferson to get the third out at second base.

After a commendable job on the mound, Bernardo was replaced by junior Tyler Gilbert in the bottom of the seventh inning to retire the side.

During the top of the ninth, Jeremy Martinez led off with a double off the wall in deep right-center to bring up Robinson, who laid down the sacrifice bunt to advance Martinez to third with one out. After an intentional walk to Dante Flores, pinch runner for Martinez, sophomore Corey Dempster, was thrown out at home to make the third out. Junior David Oppenheim then struck out to end the inning, stranding two runners.

The Trojans again missed an opportunity to advance runners in scoring position during the top of the ninth. Freshman Adalberto Carrillo lead off the inning with a chop single to the Waves’ shortstop.

Junior Marc Huberman entered the game for the Trojans during the bottom of 10th inning. After getting into some trouble with a wild pitch advancing runners to second and third, Huberman managed a huge strikeout to strand the runners and enter to the top of the eleventh.

The Trojan offense finally came to life during the top of the twelfth inning, starting with a lead off double by Carrillo and subsequent key bunt by Reggie Southall to put runners on the corners with no outs. After a catcher’s interference call, red shirted junior Bobby Stahel moved to first to load the bases.

After two quick outs, Timmy Robinson approached the plate with two down and the bases still loaded before hitting the essential single into shallow left center, bringing home both Carrillo and Stahel to put the Trojans up 2-0.

Huberman then took care of business during the top of the 12th, retiring the side and securing the 2-0 victory for USC after a slow offensive showing by both teams.

Hubbs feels that lethargy and overall lack of energy primarily lead to his team’s less-than-impressive offensive showing.

“We have to find the pitches that are ours to hit, and we were lethargic today in that respect,” Hubbs said. “We need to get our swings off when we get our pitch as opposed to swinging as we hit the ball forward. I think as the game went on, we had had better at bats. I think the biggest thing we have to do is play with more energy and play a cleaner game. Luckily our pitchers were able to mix pitches in and move the ball in and out. All four kids pitched really well today, which we obviously needed considering we didn’t score until the 12th.”

Despite the Trojans’ struggle during the beginning of the game, Hubbs feels pulling out a win during an extra-innings game on the road attests to the tenacity and conviction of his team.

“I think this win shows a lot about the kids’ mentality and that they’ll grind things out and be relentless as we always talk about,” Hubbs said. “We’ve been through extra innings before. We beat Washington after 15 innings a few weeks ago, so the guys know they can mentally push through long games and grind it out to come away with the game.”

This weekend, the Trojans will host the University of Oregon Ducks (21-16 overall, 4-8 in the Pac-12, 9-7 away) for the first time this season.

To win this weekend, Hubbs stressed the importance of coming out strong and carefully selecting pitches.

“The biggest thing we have to do this weekend is come with more energy and play an overall cleaner game,” Hubbs said. “We won’t have long practices in these next few days, but really targeted practices focused on pitching selections and base runners. My main message for the team is we have to be able to start strong at the beginning of every weekend, every game in order to win and if we can do that, we’ll be in good shape to win.”