COLLEGE BASEBALL: COMEBACK WAVES WIN GAME 2 PEPPERDINE REMAINS ALIVE PEPPERDINE 7, SAN DIEGO 6.

Byline: Chris Cocoles Staff Writer

MALIBU - Pepperdine's home dugout is used to watching dramatic home run balls sail out of Eddy D. Field Stadium.

Three of them in the Waves' last at-bat won regular-season games. But not even the most nostalgic dreamers could expect back-to-back solo blasts from the eighth and ninth hitters Patrick Rooney and Brent Haapanen.

Especially against the West Coast Conference's best closer and with a conference championship, and perhaps Pepperdine's postseason, hanging in the balance.

However sappy the script reads, Pepperdine survived for at least one more act. Rooney's and Haapanen's unlikely power surges stunned San Diego 7-6 in 10 innings Saturday to even the best-of-three WCC Championship Series at a game apiece. Today's 1 p.m. finale will determine the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Being the designated road team in their own ballpark forced the Waves (36-22) to sweat out the bottom of the 10th. The Toreros (30-28) scored once and had two runners on. But the game ended when San Diego pinch runner Jamie Hesselgesser (Westlake High) was doubled off second base.

Pepperdine was put in position to win on the heroics of Rooney and Haapanen, both sophomores who overcame early setbacks. Rooney began the season in an offensive funk, the third baseman's average dipping to just above .200. He rallied to hit .316 entering the postseason.

But when he drove a 1-0 curveball from Tony Perez (conference-leading 12 saves) over the left-field fence leading off the 10th, he trotted around the bases for just the second time in 415 Pepperdine at-bats.

``Many of our (batters) got off to very slow starts,'' Waves coach Frank Sanchez said when asked about Rooney, the starting shortstop last season now at third. ``And he's one of those guys who lost his job but worked his way back in.''

Haapanen's opportunity to be the everyday catcher fizzled when he was plagued by a hamstring injury. But when starter Nelson Caraballo struggled to hit above .200, Haapanen took over in the final two weeks. He already was productive Saturday with three hits before the 10th.

On Perez's next pitch following Rooney's homer, Haapanen was looking for a fastball and smashed it off the screen in left for his first collegiate homer.

``Rooney had the big hit to put us up, so it really relaxed me,'' Haapanen said. ``All of our hitters have a lot of confidence. And we wanted to keep giving our hitters a chance because we were hitting balls hard all day.''

And catching them with style. The game's momentum changed two innings before the homer frenzy. With the lead run at second, Toreros third baseman Freddy Sandoval hit a deep fly to the gap in left-center that seemed destined to land anywhere but in left fielder Brandon Daguio's glove. But the freshman made a full-extension dive into the warning-track dirt.