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As the stage was set like that of a movie, junior Chris Kelly stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded and his team down by one run to the University of California Santa Barbara Gauchos.
The Gauchos intentionally walked catcher Nelson Caraballo to reach the struggling Kelly, who had yet to reach base in his previous 10 plate appearances.
Unfortunately for the Gauchos, Kelly was up to the task. On a 1-1 pitch, the powerful hitter swung hard and crushed the ball over the right-center field wall for a grand slam to win the game for Pepperdine 5-2.
“I just wanted to hit the ball to the outfield and break out of the slump,” Kelly said afterward. “At the least, a sac-fly would have tied the game, but right when I hit it I knew it was gone.”
Not only did Kelly’s grand slam win the game for the Waves, but it clinched the title of the “Battle at the Beach Tournament” hosted by the Waves at Eddy D. Field Stadium. The team’s opening weekend tournament consisted of four teams: University of Washington, UC Santa Barbara, University of Houston, and Pepperdine.
In its first game, Pepperdine opened its season versus Washington in front of a crowd of 412 people. Entering the bottom of the seventh inning, the game was scoreless. That’s when Pepperdine senior shortstop Kevin Estrada, one of the country’s most dangerous hitters, knocked a solo homerun that hit the scoreboard in right field, carrying the Waves to a 1-0 victory over the Huskies.
Saturday appeared to look bright for Pepperdine as right-hander Greg Ramirez, last season’s team-strikeout leader, took the mound for the Waves against No. 7 Houston. Despite a solid pitching performance by Ramirez, who struck out five batters, Pepperdine was unable to produce any runs against Danny Zell and the Cougars’ talented pitching staff to back up their hurler.
In fact, Houston only gave up one hit, by third baseman Patrick Rooney, who singled in the third. Unable to overcome a lack of offense, the Waves came up short, losing 2-0 to the Cougars.
“It was a difficult loss to handle, but we look forward to seeing them again in the post season,” Ramirez said.
The afternoon loss by the Waves left all four teams in the tournament knotted at 1-1 for the weekend, setting up a dramatic Sunday finish to decide who would be crowned champion.
Coming out of the weekend success, the Waves look to keep winning as they continue the early part of their 2003 season.
Junior right fielder Cory Brightwell, who had two hits and a RBI on the weekend, admitted that the team has a lot more potential than it displayed last weekend.
“We have a great team but we did not play our best, especially offensively,” Brightwell said. “It’s promising to know that, yet still see us pull out with two wins in three games.”
The Waves planned to make it two wins in a row on Tuesday against University of California Irvine, but much to the dismay of starting senior pitcher James Carroll, Mother Nature had other ideas. The skies opened up and a downpour forced the contest to be postponed.
With the cancellation of the game, players get a week to prepare for their next scheduled game Tuesday at the home of their cross-town rival USC.
Submitted February 13, 2003
MALIBU, CA
