The Mustangs dropped to 8-3.

As Pepperdine’s No. 7 and 8 batters, Van Amburg (Campbell, Calif./St. Francis HS) and Rooney (Yorba Linda, Calif./Esperanza HS) combined for seven runs, eight hits and eight RBI. Van Amburg alternated singles and home runs through his first four at-bats, while Rooney doubled, tripled and singled twice.

Since his big game at UCLA on March 3, Rooney is hitting .625 with 17 total bases and has maintained a perfect fielding percentage at the hot corner. Van Amburg has been the team’s second leading hitter over the same span with a .429 batting average despite starting just three of six games.

“I’m proud of our younger guys stepping in and doing a good job this afternoon, they picked up some big hits when we needed them,” Pepperdine head coach Steve Rodriguez said. “Both practice really hard every week whether it’s on their offense or defense and now they’re beginning to see better results.”

Van Amburg began his 4-for-5 day with an RBI single in the second that scored Nate Johnson (Camarillo, Calif./Camarillo HS) to give Pepperdine a 2-1 lead, and his solo shot to center in the fourth pulled the Waves’ back into a 5-5 tie. In the previous inning, after briefly being ahead 3-1, starter Matt Bywater (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks HS) surrendered a grand slam off the bat of Matt Jensen that pushed Cal Poly back into the lead at 5-4.

Since it’s become habit for the Waves to be playing from behind at home, it made sense not to panic as they’d find a way to comeback once again. Pepperdine added a second insurance run in the fourth inning following Van Amburg’s first home run and then tacked on two more runs in the sixth, plus three in the seventh and five in the eighth.

Van Amburg was responsible for all the damage in the seventh after turning on a 2-0 inside fastball that sailed over the wall in left.

“I was picking up the ball great out of the hand, it’s location, spin, everything,” Van Amburg said. “I was doing the same in batting practice before the game, so I was hoping to have a good day at the plate.”

Rooney scored the first three times he reached base thanks to the extra base hits and a base on balls. His double in the second placed both Van Amburg and himself in position to score on Miles Silverstein’s (Bell Canyon, Calif./Calabasas HS) single, and his RBI triple in the sixth made it easy for Brian Humphries (El Cajon, Calif./Granite Hills HS) to bring him home for the second time in as many at-bats.

“I’ve been lucky to be seeing lots of fastballs,” Rooney said. “It was a great day at the plate and I felt good from my very first at-bat when I hit the double solidly to left. I think I was able to hit everything right in the middle of the bat today.”

Lost in Van Amburg’s and Rooney’s near-perfect performances were several teammates that either had career or season best afternoons, most notably senior Bryce Mendonca (San Leandro, Calif./Bishop O’Dowd HS), who tied the game at 1-1 with his first home run as a Wave through 277 at-bats. And toward the middle of the order, Ryan Heroy (Henderson, Nev./Green Valley HS) and Johnson combined to score five times as each drew three walks.

Humphries and Silverstein compiled four RBI as the No. 1 and 9 batters, and later in the game, pinch hitter Torrey Jacoby (Scottsdale, Ariz./Notre Dame Prep HS) came through with an RBI double to right.

Bywater was unable to reap the rewards of his team’s comeback effort after being replaced by Cole Cook (Los Angeles, Calif./Palisades Charter HS) with two outs in the third. Bywater retired the first two batters that inning, but walked the following hitter on five pitches and was behind 2-0 in the count to Jensen when Rodriguez made the switch.

Jensen, Cal Poly’s offensive leader, had no answer for Cook as he took three straight pitches for strikes to end the inning. Cook has now retired the first batter he’s faced in all six of his appearances, and today he put the Mustangs down in order from the from the fourth through seventh before allowing a leadoff double in the eighth.

“They’re a really strong offensive team and luckily I was able to get ahead with my fastball and the slider was on today — that seemed to be a really good pitch,” said Cook (3-0), who has won all three of his games over the last week. “The coaches actually wanted to save me, but it just so happened that I needed to get into the game.”

Cook lasted 4.1 innings on the hill and gave up one run on one hit while striking out four before turning the game over to Tyler Hess (Alamo, Calif./De La Salle HS) in the ninth. Cook tossed 52 pitches, with 34 of them called for strikes.

“Cole is a guy we recruited really hard because of the way he competed,” Rodriguez said. “He’s a big and strong kid, he’s smart and understands what’s expected. The great thing about him is his command of his pitches because he forces guys to swing the bat and doesn’t walk anybody.”

Pepperdine’s offense took turns beating up five Cal Poly pitchers, beginning with starter Jeff Johnson (0-1) who was saddled with the loss after giving up six runs on five hits and three walks. Mark Laugenour was replaced after 0.2 innings in which he walked and struck out two, and then relievers Kevin Castner, Buster Mueller and Tommy Erlin were smacked around over the final 3.0+ innings, giving up 10 runs on 10 hits and four bases on balls.

“Cal Poly is a great team and no one thought it would turn out the way it did today,” Van Amburg said. “We knew it was going to be a tough game, but realized we’d get the victory if we just played our way.”

There was little Mustang offense other than Jensen’s grand slam as the rest of the lineup scattered seven hits. Cal Poly had a chance to make it 2-0 in the first but Johnson tagged out Luke Yoder at home on a 7-6-2 putout, and in the eighth, the Mustangs scored as a result of two deep fly ball outs that advanced Adam Melker from second to home.

“Cal Poly has some guys on offense — just some great, well disciplined hitters — who can handle the bat and really do some damage; and they did a good job at the plate early on before Cole came in for us” Rodriguez said. “I don’t think you can ever expect to put together an offensive day like this against a good team like them.”

Score by Innings                    1    2     3          4    5    6          7    8    9                      R    H    E

Cal Poly (8-3)                           1    0     4          0    0    0          0    1    0                      6    8    1

Pepperdine (10-3)                    1    3     0          2    0    2          3    5    x                     16   15    0

Pitchers: Cal Poly - Johnson; Laugenour (5); Castner (5); Mueller (7); Erlin (7).

Pepperdine Waves - BYWATER, Matt; COOK, Cole (4); HESS, Tyler (9).

Win - COOK, Cole (3-0)  Loss - Johnson(0-1)  T - 3:24  A - 383

HR CP - Jensen (6).

HR PEP - MENDONCA, Bryce (1); VAN AMBURG, Ryan 2 (2).

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