First
place Dirtbags beat Pepperdine 6-1
By Michael Bower
On-line Forty-Niner
 The
third-ranked Dirtbags (33-14, 12-3) stand
alone at the top of the Big West conference
and played like a first place team on Tuesday
night.
Mike Hofius drove in two runs to break a
scoreless game in the sixth inning and Bo
Ashabraner pitched two-plus innings of relief
to collect his first win on the year as
the Dirtbags defeated the Pepperdine Waves
6-1 at Blair Field.
The Dirtbags got revenge against the Waves,
who feature 15 freshmen and defeated The
Beach 6-2 back on March 19.
The
49er defense continued its stellar play
with its fifth-straight errorless game and
its 23rd overall. The Dirtbags are ranked
second in the nation in fielding percentage
(.983).
Todd Jennings extended his hit streak to
17 games with a 3-for-4 night, while John
Bowker extended his hit streak to 13 games
with a two-hit night. In all, The Beach
racked up 12 hits and has been in double
digits in the hit column nine times in the
last 10 games.
Head coach Mike Weathers said Jennings and
Bowker are just a couple of hitters that
are starting to come around for The Beach.
Bowker has been hitting the ball well all
year and Jennings has been a key man in
turning the slumping offense around, he
added.
Scott Shoemaker pitched four scoreless innings
for The Beach before being relieved by Brett
Andrade in the fifth inning. Andrade pitched
an inning of shutout baseball as the game
went scoreless until the sixth inning.
Waves’ starter James Johnson worked efficiently
through five innings before the Dirtbags
finally struck for four runs with two outs
in the sixth.
Bowker and Davis hit back-to-back singles
before Adam Heether walked to load the bases
for Hofius. Hofius then dropped a single
into left field to bring in the games first
two runs. Troy Tulowitzki followed with
a line-drive shot that hit off the top of
the left-field wall, and the Dirtbags had
a 4-0 lead.
The Beach added two more runs in the seventh
inning when the left fielder misplayed Bowker’s
fly ball to score a run before Heether ripped
a RBI double.
Ashabraner then worked through two and two-thirds
innings giving up two hits and a run while
striking out three before giving way to
the closer, Carlos Muniz. Muniz slammed
the door shut in the ninth striking out
one.
The Dirtbags are ranked eighth in the nation
in earned run average (3.15) as the bullpen
and the starters are getting the job done.
“Our whole staff is doing well,” Ashabraner
said. “From top to bottom we are doing well.”
The Dirtbags are one game ahead of the UC
Riverside Highlanders (11-4) and the Cal
State Fullerton Titans (11-4) in the Big
West. The Highlanders took all three games
from the Titans last weekend to give The
Beach a one-game lead.
Ashabraner talked about the Dirtbags’ reaction
to being on top in the Big West.
“We heard the news on the bus ride home,”
he said. “We were pretty excited but we
also know we need to win our games.”
The games Ashabraner is talking about are
in the next two weekends. The 49ers will
host a three-game series against the Highlanders
this weekend before closing out conference
play against the Titans in a three-game
series beginning May 16.
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