June 1, 2012

Box Score (Pepperdine / Michigan State) | Quote Sheet
Press Conferences: Pepperdine | Michigan St.

NCAA Stanford Regional Central

STANFORD, Calif. -No. 24 Pepperdine opened the NCAA Tournament Stanford Regional with a 6-2 victory over Michigan State Friday at Stanford's Klein Field at Sunken Diamond.

Pepperdine advances to Saturday's winner's bracket contest at 6 p.m., facing the winner of Friday night's Fresno State-Stanford game. Michigan State will take on the loser of Friday night's game in Saturday's elimination game at 1 p.m.

The Waves (35-21) used a four-run sixth inning to blow the game open, and that would be enough for starter Jon Moscot, who pitched his sixth complete game to improve to 7-5 on the year. Moscot allowed two runs on 10 hits and struck out four.

Tony Cooper and Sam Meyer opened the Pepperdine sixth with singles, and an error on Spartan first baseman Ryan Krill allowed Floyd Given to reach, loading the bases. Matt Forgatch and Miles Silverstein drove in Cooper and Meyer, respectively, with RBI singles before Matt Gelalich delivered the deciding blow, a double over Jimmy Pickens' head in right that brought in Givens and Forgatch to make it 6-1 Waves.

Silverstein paced the Waves with three hits in fur at-bats, while Gelalich drove in a game-high three runs.

Tony Bucciferro (6-4) took the loss for Michigan State (37-22), allowing six runs, five earned, on 10 hits over five and a third innings. Pickens, Ryan Jones and Ryan Krill all had a pair of hits for the Spartans.