University Southern California Trojans
Fresno State Ousts Pepperdine In NCAA Baseball Regional, 8-6
May 27, 2001 | Baseball
May 27, 2001
LOS ANGELES-Unranked Fresno State, behind a strong pitching outing by Zach Minor and 4 RBI from Casey McGehee, eliminated No. 11 Pepperdine, 8-6, in the fifth game of the NCAA Baseball Los Angeles Regional before 551 fans at USC's Dedeaux Field on Saturday evening (May 26).
Fresno State, seeded third in the regional, improved to 41-24. At noon on Sunday, the Bulldogs face top-seeded and No. 2-ranked USC, which beat Pepperdine earlier on Saturday, 4-3, on a dramatic 2-run home run in the bottom of the ninth by Michael Moon to remain unbeaten and advance to the regional championship game. If USC beats FSU in that contest, the Trojans would move on to the NCAA Super Regional June 1-3 at a site to be announced on Monday (May 28). But if FSU beats Troy, it would set up a rematch at 4 p.m. on Sunday, with the winner going on to the NCAA Super Regional.
Second-seeded Pepperdine finished its season with a 42-18 mark. "It was a terrific game for us," said Fresno State head coach Bob Bennett. "Pepperdine's loss to USC in the earlier game was obviously a heartbreaker. It definitely stung them at the start but they battled back. We had a lot of people come through for us. It was pretty much a team effort. It'll be a mammoth task to beat USC twice on Sunday, but it's doable. Someone has to step up for us and do a good job pitching." Early on, Pepperdine appeared to have suffered no letdown after its tough loss in the previous game to USC. Jared Pitney opened the top of the second with a solo home run (his 14th of the year) off of Minor, Fresno State's starter.
But the Bulldogs answered with 3 runs in their half of the second. After Brandon Gemoll walked to open the frame off of Wave starter Greg Ramirez, McGehee homered (his fifth of the season). Brad Harper and Tobey Riday-White then got on board on an error and a single, respectively. Oscar Lopez's 2-out single scored Harper. Fresno State added another run in the third when Josh Labandeira hit his 15th homer of the season to greet Jay Adams, who replaced Ramirez to open the inning.
Pepperdine countered with a run in the fifth on singles by Ed Montague, Woody Cliffords, Danny Garcia and Pitney. But Fresno State kept up the scoring in its half of the fifth by getting 2 more runs. After Lopez and Nick Garcia opened the inning with consecutive singles and moved over on Labandeira's sacrifice bunt, Gemoll was intentionally walked to load the bases. McGehee then singled to left to score Lopez and Garcia.
The Waves got 2 runs in the top of the seventh. Montague doubled, Tony Garcia had an infield single 1 out later, then Danny Garcia doubled in Montague to knock Minor out of the game. Minor was replaced by Jason Gutknecht, who not only walked Pitney, the only batter he faced, but threw a wild pitch on ball 4 to allow Tony Garcia to score. Bulldog designated hitter Ben Fritz replaced Gutknecht.
Fresno State scored its final 2 runs in the eighth. McGehee walked to start the inning, moved to second on Harper's sacrifice bunt and scored on Fritz's single. Fritz then scored when Wave centerfielder Cliffords dropped Riday-White's deep fly ball.
Pepperdine almost staged a miraculous ninth-inning rally of its own. Trailing by 4, Cliffords began the inning with a walk, Tony Garcia had an infield hit and, 1 out later, Pitney's double scored both runners. But Daniel Haren and Dane Ball grounded out to strand Pitney and end the game. Minor got the win to move to 8-5 on the year and Fritz earned his seventh save. Ramirez was credited with the loss and fell to 5-4. Pitney went 4-for-4 with 4 RBI to spearhead Pepperdine's 15-hit attack. McGehee, Lopez and Nick Garcia each had 2 hits for the Bulldogs.
"This game was the hardest thing I've ever had to do," said Pitney. "I gave 110% in the first game and it was very hard to do it again in the second game."
