COLLEGE BASEBALL : Pepperdine Keeps Moving Closer to WCC Championship

Defending national champion Pepperdine took a major step toward its third consecutive West Coast Conference title over the weekend with an assist from Santa Clara.

Pepperdine, which entered the weekend with a half-game lead over San Diego, won two of three games against St. Mary’s to improve to 34-13 overall and 19-5 in the WCC.

Meanwhile, San Diego lost two of three against Santa Clara, leaving San Diego 35-14 and 19-8 in the WCC.

San Diego plays its final WCC series this weekend at Pepperdine. The Waves have six conference games remaining, including three against Loyola Marymount (22-27, 13-11), which won two of three against San Francisco.

Junior pitcher Daniel Choi improved his record to 13-1 as Cal State Long Beach (31-17, 14-4) moved into a first-place tie with Cal State Fullerton in the Big West Conference by sweeping three games against UC Santa Barbara (21-25-1, 6-12). Fullerton (31-14, 14-4) lost two of three nonconference games at Arizona.

Long Beach plays host to Nevada, and Fullerton plays host to San Jose State this weekend in conference finales.

UCLA (25-18, 13-11) won two of three against California to remain in third place in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division behind Arizona State (40-16, 17-10) and Arizona (30-22, 15-12). USC, idle because of finals, is in fourth at 14-13.

Cal State Northridge (29-15, 11-10) might have bolstered its playoff hopes with a three-game sweep over Hawaii (30-20, 9-9) in a Western Athletic Conference Western division series.