May 17-On a busy Saturday afternoon, seven WCC baseball teams took the diamond. Behind a brilliant pitching performance from Vince Cordova, LMU downed Portland 3-1, Santa Clara defeated Saint Mary’s 7-2, Gonzaga upended Pepperdine 8-5 and San Francisco out-slugged Sacramento State 10-3.

LMU 3, Portland 1
Loyola Marymount's Vince Cordova was brilliant in a 3-1 victory over Portland, Saturday afternoon at Page Stadium. The Lions up their record to 25-30 overall, 12-17 in the West Coast Conference, while Portland drops to 9-42-1 overall, 5-23-1 in the league. The Pilots have won just two of their last 23 games.

Cordova earned the victory upping his mark to 6-6 on the season, allowing just one run on six hits, while striking out 14 and walking three in 7.1 innings pitched. He was also dominant in his first outing against the Pilots this season, on March 14. During a 6-0 victory, Cordova threw his first career complete-game shutout, striking out nine and walking only one.

The Lions took the initial lead after Joe Frazee tripled to left-centerfield with one out in the bottom of the second inning. Lion sophomore Carl Stoeber followed with a single, staking LMU to a 1-0 lead.

LMU scored two more runs in the bottom of the fourth, aided by a Pilot error. After Jonathan Oller led off the frame with a double and Chris Pettit walked, Frazee advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt. Stoeber lifted a pitch to rightfield, but Portland's Kory Casto dropped the ball, allowing Oller to race home. LMU freshman James Cooper followed with a groundout to plate Pettit.

With the Lions scoring, Cordova was cruising. Through six innings, the junior from Whittier, Calif., had allowed just five hits, while striking out 13 and walking only one.

Cordova finally ran into trouble in the top of the eighth inning. After giving up a leadoff triple Tyler Perkins, Cordova walked consecutive batters to load the bases. Cordova was able to strikeout his final batter of the afternoon, before being relieved by Joshua Muecke.

Unfortunately for LMU, Muecke walked Brock Griffin to force in Perkins. The Lions escaped any further damage as pinch-hitter Mike McRae grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Cordova missed Sandor Demosthenes' single-game school record of 16 strikeouts, posted versus Gonzaga on April 19, 1996.

Muecke continued to struggle finding the strike zone in the ninth, surrendering a leadoff single and walking two to load the bases with one out. With a full count, Portland's Rob Seffens fouled off four consecutive pitches before looking at a called third strike. Casto also worked a full count, but struckout as well, handing Muecke his second save of the season.

Portland's Jared Adams (1-5) pitched well in defeat, allowing just two earned runs eight hits, while striking out and walking one.

LMU and Portland will play their final game of the season tomorrow at 1 p.m. The occasion will also mark the final appearance for Lion seniors Justin Abreu and Joe Silva at Page Stadium.

Santa Clara 7, Saint Mary’s 2
The Santa Clara University baseball team reached the 30-win plateau for the first time since 1997 with its 7-2 victory over Bay Area rival Saint Mary's Saturday afternoon at Buck Shaw Stadium. The Broncos' record improves to 30-26 overall and 20-9 in West Coast Conference action, while the Gaels' record falls to 18-36-1 overall and 8-20-1 in league play.

The 20 wins in conference contests also marks the first time that SCU has reached that mark since 1997. The 1997 squad was the last one coached by John Oldham, who is the second winningest coach in Bronco Baseball history and is the last coach to take a Bronco team to a regional appearance.

Scott Dierks ignited the Broncos in the first inning with a leadoff double to left field and advanced to third on a single to right center by Jack Headley. Dierks was out on a fielder's choice off the bat of Jason Matteucci that placed him at first base and moved Headley up to second. After Jim Wallace walked, Will Thompson flew out to center field and scored Headley on the sacrifice for a 1-0 lead.

Five more runs in the bottom of the third gave the Broncos a 6-0 lead as Wallace connected on a two-run double before coming home himself on Thompson's 10th home run of the season. Thompson's blast was a two-run shot that cleared the center field wall. Michael Lange picked up the fifth RBI of the inning with his single to left field that plated Joe Diefenderfer who reached on a fielder's choice earlier in the inning.

Headley led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a double to straight-away center field. Matteucci stroked a single to right field where Adam Bellows fielded the ball but made an errant throw that got away from his cutoff man allowing Headley to score on the error and give the Broncos a 7-0 advantage.

Starter Kellan McConnell went 4 1/3 innings before giving up his first run of the game as Delaney Gallagher delivered a one out double to left center before coming home on a Bryan Byrne single to center to cut the Bronco lead down to 7-1. McConnell would remain in the game through six full innings as he allowed the one run on eight hits to go along with two walks and four strikeouts.

Saint Mary's could muster only one more run in the game which came on a Preston Young sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth inning, scoring Gilbert Gil who reached on a single to left field to open the inning.

McConnell picked up his fourth win of the season as Andrew Slorp, Patrick McBride and Anthony Rea each threw one full inning in relief to close out the game. Slorp struck out two of the four batters he face, while McBride allowed only one hit and struck out one during the eighth inning. Rea struck out two of the six batters he faced in the ninth, but gave up the one run on one three hits in the frame.

Eric Bowden took the loss for SMC and saw his record fall to 7-8 on the season despite going the distance. He allowed seven runs, four of which were earned, on 11 hits to go along with two walks and six strikeouts.

Headley finished the day by going 3-for-5 with three runs scored to pace the Broncos, followed closely by Dierks and Matteucci who each added two hits. Thompson finished the day 1-for-3 with three RBI and one run scored while Wallace also went 1-for-3 with two RBI and one run scored.

Byrne tallied four hits in five at-bats for the Gales and picked up one of only two RBI on the day. Gallagher finished 3-for-5 with one run scored while Young notched the other RBI to go with his lone hit of the day.

Both teams will conclude their 2003 seasons with the final game of this three-game series that is scheduled for a 1 p.m. first pitch on Sunday at Buck Shaw Stadium.

Gonzaga 8, Pepperdine 5
Gonzaga senior catcher Sam Hess connected for his second home run in two weeks, hitting a crucial three-run blast during the bottom of the third inning as Gonzaga University (25-25-1, 13-16 WCC) knocked off No. 26 Pepperdine University, 8-5, at Spokane Falls Community College. The Waves dropped to 35-20, 23-6 in the WCC as the two teams will wrap-up their three games West Coast Conference series on Sunday afternoon.

Eric Rodland got the Bulldogs offense on track in the first inning as he reached on an infield hit before coming around to score on a Gordon Corder single up the middle. Hess then pushed the Bulldogs out to a 4-0 lead in the third inning as he lifted a ball out of the park to left field against Waves starter Jacob Barrack (9-2). It was the first loss for Barrack since February.

Pepperdine closed the gap to 4-1 in the top of the fourth on a Brent Haapanen single to left that scored Patrick Rooney. After Corder drove home Gonzaga's fifth run of the game in the bottom of the fourth, Pepperdine responded with two runs in the fifth. Ty Harper had sacrifice fly and Cory Brightwell delivered an RBI single to center against Bulldogs starter Eric Dworkis. Dworkis would finish out the fifth to improve to 8-5 on the season.

The Bulldogs added three insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth against Pepperdine reliever James Carroll. With the bases loaded and one out, Jeff Culpepper laced a ball down the right field line that just stayed fair allowing two runs to score on the double. David Johnson capped the Gonzaga scoring with a sacrifice fly later in the inning.

John Gonzalez worked the final four innings on the mound to pick up his fifth save of the season. He ran into a little trouble in the eighth as Haapenen and Brandon Daguio each drove home runs. Gonzalez stranded two runners on base to end the inning as he forced Chris Kelly to hit into an inning ending double play.

Daguio led the Waves with three hits while Haapanen had two hits and two RBI. Corder finished the afternoon with three hits and two RBI. Hess led the Bulldogs with his three runs driven in. Gonzaga will conclude its 2003 season on Sunday afternoon against Pepperdine with a 1 p.m. start at Spokane Falls Community College Baseball Field. The Waves will return to Malibu to host San Diego in the WCC Championships starting next Friday afternoon.

USF 10, Sacramento State 3
USF seniors put an exclamation point on the 2003 home finale at Benedetti Diamond posting a 10-3 victory against Sacramento State in non-conference action Saturday. The Diamond Dons (25-30) bounced back after suffering a shutout in Sacramento against the Hornets (32-34).

It was a day dominated by seniors as six of seven Diamond Don seniors were in the lineup for head coach Nino Giarratano. The seventh senior, Bryan Williams, tossed a complete game yesterday. Each senior added another chapter in the memory books. Competing in his sixth and final season on the Hilltop, senior outfielder Jason Howard launched a pair of homeruns to deep right field on a four RBI day.

Right-hander Kevin Annis (7-3) pitched 5.0 scoreless innings in a gutty performance, allowing just one hit while striking out five. With his seventh victory of the season, Annis secured a share of seventh place among single-season wins leaders and won his fourth consecutive start.

Designated hitter Ryan Sittauer erupted for a 4-for-5, RBI double effort in his home curtain call, while leadoff hitter Nick Tarbat went 2-for-5 with an RBI. Catcher Anthony Jimenez went 1-for-2 with an RBI and gunned down a runner trying to steal second, while Alfonso Valdes knocked in a run on a sacrifice fly.

San Francisco’s bats erupted for 17 hits a day after being limited to four and seniors recorded nine of them and knocked in eight. USF got on the board in the second and added a pair in the third on Howard’s first long ball, a laser beam to right. The Dons tacked on five more in the fifth, chasing Hornet right-handed starter Marshall Plouffe (6-3), who allowed five runs off eight hits in four-plus innings. The Dons led 8-0 before Sacramento State got on the board in the top of the seventh and added single runs in the eighth and ninth.

Howard’s second two-run shot of the game to deep right-center in the eighth finished the scoring for the Diamond Dons. The two homeruns give Howard 21 career long balls to rank sixth all-time and is only the sixth player in program history to reach 20 bombs.

Junior infielders Armand Gaerlan and Joe Jacobitz each finished with three base hits. Freshman infielder Andrew Smith went 2-for-4 with an RBI for the Dons. Junior infielder John Acha went 3-for-4, while junior outfielder Jesse Schmidt went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

USF travels to Sacramento for the final game of the series and the 2003 season. The Diamond Dons have the opportunity to complete their fourth series victory in a row with a win against the Hornets tomorrow. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 PM Sunday at Hornet Field.