Waves’ Kleen Has All the Answers
Steve Kleen may be the top two-way college baseball player in the Southland and he showed why Saturday in keeping Pepperdine alive in the West Coast Conference championship series.
Kleen broke open a tight game with a grand slam in the seventh inning and then slammed the door on a Loyola Marymount comeback in the ninth to close out a 7-5 victory in Game 2 of the best-of-three series in front of an overflow crowd at Loyola’s Page Stadium.
The victory by the Waves set up a decisive game today for the WCC title and the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. Pepperdine (37-21) may have already sewn up a bid with its overall record and impressive at-large profile, but Kleen said that wasn’t enough.
“We came out a little flat yesterday and Coach came out today and fired us up a little bit,” Kleen said of Steve Rodriguez. “A lot of the guys probably know that we’ll still make the playoffs because of our record, but we set higher standards. We want to win our conference.”
Luke Salas went three for three and his single triggered a two-run sixth for Pepperdine. Donald Brown singled into right field to end a 1-1 tie and Danny Worth followed with a sacrifice fly.
Kleen provided the biggest hit the next inning. Loyola starter Stephen Kahn walked Salas and Chad Tracy to load the bases before falling behind 3-and-0 to the senior first baseman.
“I knew he wasn’t throwing anything else for a strike besides his fastball,” Kleen said. “I knew he was coming with a fastball because the bases were loaded and he couldn’t walk me.”
Kleen hit the 3-1 fastball deep over the fence in left-center field for his seventh homer to give the Waves a 7-1 lead. It was enough support for Kea Kometani as the senior pitched seven strong innings before tiring in the eighth.
Using his split-finger fastball to great success, Kometani gave up three earned runs and four hits while striking out seven to rebound from a bad start last week against San Francisco.
“It was probably one of the worst starts in my career,” he said. “I just had to battle back. Coach just told me to be aggressive when you have to.”
The Lions (31-26) scored twice in the eighth and threatened in the ninth. Pinch-hitters A.J. LaMonda and Evan Shahak hit consecutive doubles and center fielder Joe Frazee followed with another double to cut the lead to two.
Rodriguez summoned Kleen, who got Eric Farris to fly out and struck out James Cooper for his 14th save.
“We didn’t do enough to win the game,” Loyola Coach Frank Cruz said after his team lost for the third time in 18 games.
*
Aaron Guilbault tied the score with a leadoff home run in the eighth inning and Eddie Adamson doubled and scored the winning run on a wild pitch as Wisconsin Whitewater rallied for a 7-6 victory over Chapman in a winner’s bracket game of the Division III World Series at Grand Chute, Wis.
Wisconsin Whitewater (43-7) rallied from deficits of 5-2 and 6-5 to push Chapman (37-10) into an elimination game today against Cortland State.
*
Junior right-hander Garet Hill (10-2) pitched a three-hitter and Dave Mirabal had two hits and two runs batted in as Biola eliminated Briar Cliff (Iowa), 4-1, at the NAIA College World Series in Lewiston, Idaho.