MALIBU, Calif. - Devan Ornelas homered, Owen Hackman threw six solid innings and the LMU baseball team swept Pepperdine with a 4-2 victory in Malibu, Calif. on Sunday afternoon.  

 

The Lions did it three different ways in the series sweep over the Waves. On Friday afternoon the Lions raced out to an early lead and used a stellar pitching performance from Diego Barrera to get the victory. On Saturday, the Lions utilized a masterclass in pitching from Zach Kirby before lighting the scoreboard up with 10 runs. Sunday was by far the closest of the three, but the Lions used some two-out hitting and some timely defense to get the win.  

 

Khadim Diaw once again led the game off with a base hit and advanced to third when the Pepperdine pitcher issued a pair of walks. Diaw would score on a wild pitch and the Lions were once again staked to an early lead.  

 

Pepperdine tied things up in the third inning and took a short-lived lead in the fourth inning before the Lions roared back. Benny Casillas led off the inning by dropping a single into right field. Casillas would steal second, his team-leading fifth swipe of the season. Jared Thomas would battle and hit a sharp ground ball between the first and second basemen to plate Casillas from second and tie the game in the fifth.  

 

Ornelas would deliver the fireworks in the sixth. With two outs and nobody on, Ornelas worked himself into a 2-0 count and belted a fastball over the right field wall, just to the left of the scoreboard. It was his fourth homerun of the season and it gave the Lions an important lead.  

 

Thomas would deliver an insurance run in the ninth with a two-out single through the right side of the infield once again. With Diaw running from second, there was no chance for a play at the plate and LMU earned an important insurance run.  

 

Lions pitchers worked their magic all weekend. Eight Lions pitchers combined for only three earned runs this weekend against the Waves. On Sunday, Hackman threw six strong innings. He allowed two earned runs on six hits and one walk. He handed the ball over to Logan Hurd who hurled 1.1 innings and struck out one. Hurd passed the baton to Seamus Barrett, who got into a little jam with a walk and a hit, but rolled a tailor-made double play ball to second baseman Cole Roberts to end the threat in the eighth. Merrick Baldo came on for the ninth and struck out a pair to notch his seventh save of the campaign. 

 

With the victory and the Portland loss to Santa Clara, the Lions will claim at least a share of the WCC regular season title. With one more win or Portland loss, the Lions will clinch the title outright.  

 

The Lions are back home to finish off the season, starting with a Tuesday night matchup with USC. The Lions will then host Pacific in the final WCC series of the season before heading to Las Vegas next week to take part in the WCC Conference Tournament.