Apr 18-Four West Coast Conference baseball teams took the field on Friday. Behind the arm of senior Eric Bowden and the bat of freshman Sam Battle, the Saint Mary's Gaels collected a 10-5 win over San Diego. Pepperdine's Kevin Estrada and Cory Brightwell pounded out three hits apiece to lead the Waves to a 7-3 win at San Francisco.

Pepperdine 7, USF 3
Senior shortstop Kevin Estrada and junior right fielder Cory Brightwell totaled three hits apiece to lead a 16-hit attack as Pepperdine defeated San Francisco, 7-3, in a West Coast Conference (WCC) game Friday afternoon at Benedetti Diamond.

It was the Waves’ (25-15, 14-3) second straight over the Dons and marked their season-high sixth straight victory. Pepperdine has also won nine straight WCC games and 11 of its last 12. San Francisco dropped to 16-25 on the season and 9-11 in WCC play.

For the second straight day, the Waves received outstanding starting pitching as junior right hander Jacob Barrack worked eight innings, scattered 11 hits, allowed three runs, walked one and struck out six.

Sophomore Steve Kleen pitched the ninth and struck out the side. In two games against the Dons, Pepperdine pitching has struck out 24 batters.

Sophomore catcher Nelson Caraballo gave Pepperdine a 1-0 lead with a third-inning leadoff home run. The Waves made it 2-0 later in the inning when junior right fielder Cory Brightwell singled home a run with two outs.

Freshman designated hitter Michael Beattie and Caraballo produced RBI singles in the fifth to give Pepperdine a 4-0 lead.

San Francisco cut the lead in half with two runs in the seventh inning only to have Pepperdine score twice in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by freshman second baseman David Uribes and RBI single by freshman left fielder Brandon Daguio.

The Waves scored once more in the ninth following a triple by Brightwell and a sacrifice fly by freshman Nick Kliebert.

Saint Mary's 10, San Diego 5
Starting pitcher Eric Bowden through his fourth complete-game of the season, second consecutive, to lead the Saint Mary's Gaels to a 10-5 victory over the San Diego Toreros on Friday afternoon at Cunningham Stadium.

San Diego (20-24/9-10 WCC) starting pitcher Kyle Collins suffered the loss and saw his record drop to 6-3. Collins worked a one-two-three inning in the top half of the first and the Torero offense brought across three runs in the bottom half of the inning to put San Diego in front 3-0.

Saint Mary's (16-20-1/7-8-1 WCC) responded with 10 runs over the next three frames. The Gaels offense touched up Collins, USD's ace, for seven runs and went on to score three more runs off junior reliever Pat Lucy. Freshman right fielder Sam Battle knocked in three runs on a bases clearing double off Lucy and went 2-for-3 Friday for St. Mary's. Gael left fielder Jeff Cunningham was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI.

For the Toreros, junior left fielder Josh Hansen homered, doubled and drove in three of USD's five runs. Hansen was 3-for-4 on the afternoon, raising his season average to .265. Senior center fielder Tony Perez was 2-for-3 with a double and drew two walks.

USD right-hander Michael Bass tossed four innings of shutout baseball in relief of both Collins and junior Pat Lucy. Bass set down five on strikes and allowed just one hit Friday to enjoy his best outing of the season.

Saint Mary's saw senior Bowden go the distance, scattering eight hits and allowing five runs to improve his overall record to 6-4.