NCAA REGIONALS: BASEBALL: MOON IS THE MAN FOR TROJANS USC BEATS PEPPERDINE, REACHES REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP USC 4, PEPPERDINE 3.Byline: Chris Cocoles Staff Writer The 2,376 paying fans at Dedeaux Field Dedeaux Field is a college baseball stadium in Los Angeles, California, and the home field of the University of Southern California Trojans baseball team. The stadium holds 2,500 people and was built in 1974, the year USC won its record fifth consecutive College World Series title. and about 100 outsiders perched atop the parking garage behind right field were breathless. Noah Lowry Noah Ryan Lowry (born October 10 1980 in Ventura, California) is a left-handed starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball. With only average velocity on his fastball, Lowry was not widely regarded as a top prospect, and did not make Baseball , the Pepperdine junior who outpitched his more famous counterpart, USC's Mark Prior, was heartbroken. Michael Moon Michael Moon is an American literary academic, formerly a professor in the English department at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, United States. He currently works in interdisciplinary studies at Emory University. He previously taught at Duke University. , the Trojans freshman and the ultimate hero of a college baseball College baseball is baseball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. Compared to American football and basketball in the United States, college competition plays a less significant contribution to cultivating game filled with them, smiled. Emotions swayed and buckled quicker than Prior's nasty slider A block of material that holds the read/write head of a magnetic disk. See flying head. Saturday. Moon's two-run home run in the ninth inning propelled USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. to a 4-3 win and a berth in today's NCAA NCAA abbr. National Collegiate Athletic Association Regional championship round. The top-seeded Trojans (41-17) need one win over No. 3 seed Fresno State (41-24) when the teams meet today at noon and 4 p.m. (if necessary) to reach the NCAA Super Regionals. Second-seeded Pepperdine (42-18) couldn't recover from the USC loss and fell 8-6 to Fresno State in an elimination game Saturday night. USC let a 1-0, seventh-inning lead over Pepperdine slip away. When the Waves added a run in the ninth to make it 3-1, the Trojans' hopes and spirit dimmed. For the previous 5 1/3 innings, USC managed only a harmless single against Lowry. The Waves' dugout whooped it up, anticipating three more quick outs by Lowry. ``Our dugout got quiet, our crowd got quiet,'' Moon said. ``To have a regional played at home with your own crowd getting quiet, it definitely doesn't help.'' Senior left fielder Josh Persell broke USC's melancholic mel·an·chol·ic adj. 1. Affected with or being subject to melancholy. 2. Of or relating to melancholia. mood with a ninth-inning leadoff double. For the first time since the fifth, a Trojan was on base. ``The life came back to our team,'' Moon said. ``I think if he gets out, it's a totally different game.'' Bill Peavey's run-scoring single up the middle further rejuvenated re·ju·ve·nate tr.v. re·ju·ve·nat·ed, re·ju·ve·nat·ing, re·ju·ve·nates 1. To restore to youthful vigor or appearance; make young again. 2. USC. That brought up Moon. Trojans coach Mike Gillespie signaled Moon to bunt Peavey over at 1-1. He pulled back the bat and took a second strike from Lowry. Moon looked into the dugout, where Gillespie shouted ``Be a good two- strike hitter.'' Despite being behind and swinging left-handed against one of America's premier southpaws, Moon crushed Lowry's pitch over the right-field fence. ``When I watched it go, I think I had the biggest smile on my face I've ever had in my life,'' Moon said. ``It was one of those things where I knew it was gone. And I knew we won.'' Moon earned Justin Gemoll's vacated starting job at third base in the second game against Louisville. He's been in the lineup 56 of 58 times. ``You can't really expect a guy to replace (Gemoll's) 18 home runs, (67) RBI RBI abbr. Baseball runs batted in Noun 1. rbi - a run that is the result of the batter's performance; "he had more than 100 rbi last season" run batted in and a (.374) average,'' Persell said. ``You can't think `We've got to replace that or we're going to die this year.' He's gotten to be one of our toughest outs.'' Moon is hitting .306 with five homers and 36 RBI. Gemoll numbers? No. But few two-run shots were more significant in USC's modern-day history. ``I don't remember a win quite as dramatic as this, given the momentum shift and what was on the line,'' Gillespie said. The matchup of Prior and Lowry, two of the college game's prized prospects and winningest pitchers, attracted a standing-room only crowd to Dedeaux. A few fans turned away at the gate climbed the trees beyond the right- field fence to get a glimpse. Neither pitcher disappointed, but Lowry (14-2) was more impressive, regardless of the three consecutive daggers Peavey, Persell and Moon pierced Lowry with in the ninth. Lowry rebounded from an erratic beginning to dominate the middle innings. The left-hander retired 16 of 17 Trojans from the fourth to the eighth. But Lowry recorded no outs thereafter when the Waves were three away from the regional final. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion