I’ve been a bad boy. Really bad.

It took me until May 4th of the 2012 season before I finally made my first appearance at the best place to watch a game in all of college baseball: Pepperdine’s Eddy D. Field Stadium.

Shame on me, huh?

Stitched-ball nirvana. Now THIS is where to watch a college baseball game.

So when I woke up this afternoon I had decided it was time to climb on my motorcycle and make that enjoyable ride up the Pacific Coast Highway to see the Waves play. Finally.

But to my defense, my original plan was to go to see Oklahoma play at Pepperdine to open the season on opening day… until my body decided to get sick as hell to where I could barely even sit upright. So I had to skip the Sooners-Waves series since I was driving up to the Bay Area to see the Stanford-Vanderbilt finale.

But here’s an account of today’s trek to Malibu to see the Waves take on San Francisco.

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WHAT I SAW AT EDDY D. FIELD STADIUM.

The Dons dominated. Really. And I totally didn’t expect that, ‘coz the Pepperdine Waves were the team that came in as NCAA Tournament at-large hopefuls, but didn’t look the part today. The Dons played with confidence, jumping on Pepperdine early on as they improve their WCC mark to 9-7, staying within 2.5 games of league-leading San Diego.

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LINESCORE:

U.S.F. – 101 102 002 – 7  13  1

P’dine – 000 000 101 – 2   4  2

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PITCHING.

WP: Abe Bobb, 6-4

LP: Jon Moscot, 4-5

Save: None

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TOP HITTERS.

USF:

- Nik Balog, 2-for-5, 3RBI, double

- Mason Morioka, 2-for-4

- Justin Maffei, 2-for-5

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PU:

- Zachary Vincej, 2-for-4

- Austin Davidson, 2-for-3, RBI

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RECORDS.

- USF: 23-25, 9-7

- PU: 24-18, 7-6

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IN A NUTSHELL.

Coming in, the Waves had an RPI of No. 27 and USF had an RPI of No. 125, but today it looked like the two sides had swapped roles. The Dons didn’t start All American ace Kyle Zimmer, who sat due to a “tired arm”, but Abe Bobb filled in admirably going the distance and giving up just four hits all day – two of which came in the 9th inning. The best part was that he issued nary a single walk. The USF offense jumped on Waves ace Jon Moscot right from the get-go, scoring single runs in the 1st, 2nd and 4th innings, pulling enough runs to win the game right there.

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IT WAS OVER WHEN.

- Pepperdine decided not to be Pepperdine.

Historically, the Waves are pitching and defense artists. So that’s why it was really weird to see the Waves starter Jon Moscot get knocked around consistently and also seeing the defense committing errors and doing un-Pepperdinelike things like wild pitches, passed balls and making some defensive miscues. In all, the Dons also knocked out 13 hits, with three-hole hitter Nik Balog getting two of them, while accounting for three RBI.

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KEY STAT.

- 2.

That was the number of hits that the Waves had going into the 9th inning, which they entered with a 7-1 deficit. The Waves came into the game with a .281 team batting average, but went the first eight innings of the game getting just two hits and no earned runs. Two hits in the 9th inning and another run (this one was earned) accounted for their two runs.

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GAME BALL GOES TO:

- Abe Bobb, starting pitcher for the Dons.

Yep, this one was easy. The slight-built flinger tossed his first-ever complete game, going for 98 pitches. Talk about effective, after giving up a leadoff double, Bobb sat down the next 18 Waves batters, before giving up a single to open the bottom of the seven. Bobb now leads USF with six wins and lowered his ERA to 2.45.

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CLEAR-LY STRUGGLING.

Poor Adam Clear. The Dons’ shortstop had a tough day to say the least. Clear ended up as the only player in the batting order to go hitless on the day for USF. And worse yet, all five of his at-bats ended an inning for the Green & Gold with a double play to end the 1st, a strikeout to end the 3rd, an infield flyout to end the 5th and a pair of groundouts to 3rd to end the 7th and short to end the 9th. Needless to say, he’s due for some good fortune.

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THE WCC AND THE RPI.

This might be the best the West Coast Conference has been in the last 10 years. Right now, the WCC ranks No. 6 in the conference RPIs and No. 4 in Boyd Nation’s ISR conference rankings. Going into this weekend the WCC has San Diego at No. 26, Pepperdine at No. 27 and Gonzaga at No. 30. The remarkable part has been charting teams movement when they’ve lost. For instance, the Waves have gone 7-7 since the beginning of April, yet their RPI has never left the 20s. Even more amazing was two weeks ago when Gonzaga got swept at San Francisco and actually GAINED two spots in the RPI from No. 27 up to No. 25.

Despite each team coming away with stellar non-conference wins, the bottom of the WCC has fallen off a bit since the beginning of conference play as Portland is the next highest rated team beyond the big three, sitting at No. 85. St. Mary’s is No. 88, USF is down to No. 125, BYU is No. 127 and Santa Clara, after a great start, is down to No. 131.

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PICS

Some images from today’s game.

USF's Abe Bobb filled in admirably for the usual Friday starter Kyle Zimmer, throwing his first complete game of the year.

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Pepperdine's Jon Moscot didn't have his best stuff, giving up 11 hits and five runs in his 7.0 innings.

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USF's Matt Chavez slides into home before Pepperdine's Miles Silverstein can catch-and-tag.

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The Dons' infielders played very steady behind Abe Bobb as 14 of the 27 outs recorded were grounders to the infielders.

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... in fact, the only error of the day came when RF Bradley Zimmer misplayed a base hit, in which the batter eventually came around to score for the Waves. Here, Zimmer looks at the scoreboard, wishing that lone unearned run on the PU ledger would quit haunting him.

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Austin Davidson was one of the few bright spots on the day for the Waves, having earned two hits and playing spotless D.

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The San Fran bullpen was merely going through the motions since Abe Bobb had no need for support today.

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The Dons congratulate themselves after a solid win over a good team.

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Just in case you were wondering, here's what Field Stadium looks like from the other direction. It's nestled nicely into the hillside and surrounded by palm trees. (And yes, the Pepperdine campus is wrought with endless amounts of stairways)

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OTHER STUFF.

Some extra things from around the country.

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THREE UP

The best of the day in college baseball.

1- THE COMEBACK KIDS

South Carolina overcame a 6-0 deficit after just three innings in the wilds of Northwest Arkansas to take down the homestanding Razorbacks 8-6. That showed some guile there. Hard to believe the Cocks could overcome a *human* effort from Michael Roth, who gave up six runs and six hits without a single strikeout in his 6.0 innings of work.

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2- OREGON PROVES GOOD PITCHING does BEAT GOOD HITTING.

The Ducks went into Hi Corbett Field and put the total clamps on a hot-hitting Wildcats team, beating them 6-1 and out-hitting them 13-to-7. Alex Keudell went the distance, striking out seven and walking just two. With the win, UO extends its lead in the Pac 12 to a game and a half at 15-7, compared to UofA’s 12-7.

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3- ANDREW HEANEY, OKLAHOMA STATE.

Bedlam Bonzai! The Pokes’ left-handed ace threw his third complete game of the season, a 7K, 3-hitter, to douse Oklahoma in a 3-0 shutout. Heaney threw 106 pitches, 74 of them for strikes, and gave up just one walk, helping the Cowboys to improve to 12-7 in the Big 12 and 27-17 overall.

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HONORABLE MENTIONS

- San Diego’s Kris Bryant.

For the second night in a row, the Torero slugger went yard on BYU… in fact, pulling the trick twice tonight. Bryant went 4-for-5 with 3RBI, fueled by a 2nd inning solo shot and a 9th inning two-run bomb. USD routed the Cougars 13-2 to take a 2-0 lead on their new conference-mates.

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- Stanford 3B Alex Blandino

The freshman wunderkind hit three consecutive doubles to help the Cardinal overcome Oregon State 8-2 in Corvallis. Austin Wilson only had one hit on the night, a triple, but accounted for three RBI.

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- Bryant’s John Mullen.

For the third time this season, the precocious freshman 3rd baseman had a game-winning hit. In today’s 6-5 win over Monmouth, Mullen lasered an RBI double in the top of the 12th to give the Bulldogs a big win in the showdown of Northeast Conference leaders. Also, reliever Sal Lisanti threw four scoreless innings and gave up just one hit to get the win. BU now has a two-game lead on the Hawks in the NEC.

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- Temple RHP Dan Moller.

The Owl senior picked up his first win in – get this guys – over three years in today’s 3-1 win over Dayton. Moller faced just three over the minimum, giving up just three hits, the one unearned run and zero walks. He officially became the only pitcher on the current Temple roster to throw a complete game. Wow.

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- Utah Valley’s Goose Kallunki

The sizable Wolverine 1st baseman smashed two dingers in today’s 6-5 win over Houston Baptist, giving him 15 for the season, a school record. It also helped UVU extend their nation’s best win streak to 25 games.

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- FIU’s Mike Martinez.

The Panther 3rd baseman only went 1-for-5, but that one hit (an RBI single which wrapped up the scoring for the night) tied him for the school’s all-time hit total with 288. Martinez already owns the school’s high-water mark for RBI and total bases. The Panthers went on to beat Middle Tennessee 8-4 as Eddy Piderman earned his 8th win of the year with six innings of four-hit work.

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- Southeastern Louisiana’s Stefan Lopez.

The Lion reliever became the Southland Conference’s all-time saves leader by picking up his 28th career save in tonight’s 4-3 win over Stephen F. Austin. Not only that, but tonight’s save also put him tied with former Sam Houston reliever Luke Prihoda for saves in a single season with 18.

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- Jackson State’s RHP Quintavious Drains

I haven’t spent enough bandwidth on this guy. Not at all. But the dude threw another complete game, giving up just three hits and two walks to help the Tigers squash Alabama A&M 6-0. With the win, Drains moves to 10-4 on the season and into a tie with Army’s Chris Rowley for most wins in the country.

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THREE DOWN

The worst of the day in college baseball.

1- THE END OF ANOTHER STREAK.

South Carolina-Upstate’s Gaither Bumgardner came into today’s game with Stetson having 11 straight hits in 11 straight at-bats. That was three hits shy of an NCAA D1 record held by Gonzaga’s Larry Patterson’s 14 straight, which he hit in 1977. On top of that, Bumgardner also had a streak of 15 straight plate appearances of reaching base, which was three shy of the record which Cal State Northridge’s Shaun Larkin hit back in 2002.

And well… Bumgardner meekly grounded out to the pitcher in his first at-bat vs. Stetson tonight. In fact, the streak REALLY ended, since Bumgardner went 0-for-4 on the night. However, the Spartans ended up beating the Hatters 8-2, improving to 14-5 in the Atlantic Sun.

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2- OLE MISS LACK OF CLUTCH.

The Rebels not only didn’t get a win over LSU with ace Bobby Wahl on the mound, but they also let the Tigers come back from a 3-2 deficit to tie the score in the 8th inning, then let them score the winning run in the 13th inning. The worst part of the extra inning loss? The Rebels stranded eight runners in the 10th through 13th innings, including a bases-loaded situation in the 12th. As if the situation couldn’t get any worse… the SEC’s second best hitter, Alex Yarbrough, went 0-for-6 in the game with two strikeouts.

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3- RICE.

The homesteading Owls were stunned by their cross-town rival Houston Cougars 11-6, giving up 15 hits, all 11 runs were earned and Matthew Reckling was handed his first loss of the 2012 season (now 7-1). The No. 6 Owls allowed Landon Appling to have a career day, going 3-for-6 with 6RBI and a home run. Reckling lasted just 2.1 innings, giving up eight hits and eight runs, all earned. Yikes.

On the bright side for the Owls, I saw on Fox Sports tonight that their long-dormant scoreboard is working again. Silver lining.

The WG ain't happy. Coach Graham had to pull Matt Reckling (29) very early in the Owls loss to Houston tonight.

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Okay, guys and dolls. I’m hittin’ the rack now. More tomorrow from what should be a great college baseball Saturday.

G’night.