Loyola’s Worst Season Since 1983 Ends With a Doubleheader Loss to Pepperdine

It was a frustrating ending to a disappointing season for the Loyola Marymount baseball team Saturday at Pepperdine.

The Lions lost a doubleheader to the Waves, 3-2 and 17-2.

It ended a 15-37 season for Loyola, which finished 9-17 in the West Coast Conference. It was the worst record for the Lions since a 11-41 season in 1983.

Fourth-ranked Pepperdine, which has earned a berth to the NCAA playoffs, improved to 38-10-1 and 23-4 to win its second consecutive conference title. The Waves have two nonconference games remaining.

The seven-inning first game started well for the Lions. They took the lead in the third inning on a single by catcher Gerardo Perez that scored first baseman Anthony Napolitano.

The game was delayed 30 minutes in the sixth inning because of fog and drizzle, but when play resumed, the Lions appeared on the verge of breaking the game open.

Loyola loaded the bases with nobody out, but managed to score only one run when Pepperdine outfielder Matt McElreath dropped a fly ball with one out.

The Waves scored in the bottom of the sixth on a double by designated hitter David Main that scored Steve Rodriguez to set up their winning rally in the seventh.

Keven Dell’Amico drove in Chris Sheff with the tying run, stole second and went to third on a single by Scott Vollmer. Dell’Amico scored the winning run on a single by Rodriguez.

Reliever Steve Montgomery earned the victory to improve to 8-2. Bowers lost for the fifth time in eight decisions.

Bowers, who was pitching a one-hit shutout through five innings, said he was bothered by the delay.

“I was pretty much in rhythm and the delay came and then I wasn’t as sharp,” he said. “In the last inning, I walked the leadoff batter and then they got a couple of hits and rallied.”

Pepperdine made short work of the Lions in the second game.

After Loyola left the bases loaded in the first inning, the Waves scored five runs in the bottom of the inning to knock out Lion starter Bob Noson.

Pepperdine added a run in the second and six in the third to turn the game into a rout. The game was called after seven innings.

Loyola Coach Jody Robinson said losing the first game didn’t affect his team in the nightcap.

“Going into the second game we were all right, but what hurt us was when loaded the bases in the first and didn’t score,” he said. “I think that took the air out of us.”

One of the few bright spots for the Lions was the play of Napolitano, who went five for seven with two doubles in the doubleheader.

That gave him 23 doubles for the season, tying him with Don Sparks for fourth on the school’s single-season list. But Napolitano wasn’t in a mood to celebrate after the doubleheader.

“It’s hard to look at what you do individually, especially the way we lost that first game,” he said. “All of that stuff is good but it obviously wasn’t enough because we lost.”