Pepperdine Qualifies for Series the Hard Way : College baseball: After losing to Hawaii, 6-3, in the first game, Waves come back to win the second, 9-0.

Pepperdine earned its second trip to the College World Series Monday night the hard way, defeating Hawaii, 9-0, in the championship game of the NCAA Division I West Regional at Tucson after losing to the Rainbows in the first game.

The Waves (44-11-1), undefeated in the tournament before Monday, lost, 6-3, in the opener when they could not hold a 3-1 lead, thereby forcing a second game in the double-elimination tournament. That loss ended Pepperdine’s 15-game winning streak, longest in the country.

Pepperdine’s last trip to the World Series was in 1979, when they finished third.

The Waves had little trouble with the Rainbows in the late game. They scored five runs in the first inning, three more in the third and added another in the eighth to end Hawaii’s season.

Senior left-hander Jerry Aschoff pitched 6 1/3 innings and held Hawaii to two hits. He struck out seven and walked four. Steve Montgomery pitched 2 2/3 innings of hitless relief.

Pepperdine’s Steve Rodriguez walked to lead off the first inning, stole second and scored on a base hit by Matt McElreath, who advanced to second on the play at the plate.

Dan Melendez drove in McElreath with a double to make the score 2-0. After a walk to David Main, Scott Vollmer drove in two more runs with a double.

The Waves increased their lead in the third as Chris Sheff, the tournament’s most valuable player, hit a bases-empty home run, his 10th. Vollmer drove in a run with a triple and scored on Eric Ekdahl’s base hit.

Ekdahl scored Pepperdine’s final run on a wild pitch.

Sheff, second baseman Rodriguez, shortstop Ekdahl and relief pitcher Montgomery all were selected to the all-tournament team.

Pepperdine could have qualified for the World Series in the first game, but couldn’t hold its 3-1 lead after four innings.

Hawaii, which ended the season 48-14, scored five runs in the sixth inning. Scott Craven led the Rainbows with three hits and three runs batted in during that game.

Patrick Ahearne took the loss for the Waves, giving up five earned runs in 6 2/3 innings.