Lockin a Big Hit for Loyola Marymount

Billy Lockin, to his own surprise, hasn’t played in a postseason game since he came to Loyola Marymount four years ago. With one last chance to realize that goal, the senior shortstop is doing what he can to keep the Lions in the playoff picture.

Lockin had two doubles, a single and scored three runs to lead Loyola to a 7-3 victory over Pepperdine in the opener of a three-game West Coast Conference series between division leaders Friday at LMU.

Loyola (26-19-1, 16-6) won for the fifth time in seven games to maintain a three-game lead over San Diego in the WCC’s Coast Division. The Lions haven’t been in first place this late in a season since winning the conference title in 2000, their last playoff appearance.

“They’ve been waiting to have a season like this,� Loyola Coach Frank Cruz said.

Pepperdine starter Jacob Barrack held the Lions scoreless through four innings, but Lockin did his best to ruin the right-hander’s outing. He led off the fifth with a double and came around to score on Clint McGill’s double off third baseman Nick Kliebert’s glove.

McGill would score on a single by Joe Frazee for a 2-1 lead, but the Waves (19-23, 13-6) tied it in the top of the sixth on a single by Patrick Rooney.

Loyola took the lead for good in the bottom half of the inning. Lockin triggered a three-run rally with a bloop single to score A.J. LaMonda. Catcher Jonathan Higashi helped break open the game with run-scoring singles in the sixth and eighth innings.

The 5-foot-8, 160-pound Lockin has hit .333 over his four-year career with 259 hits, ranking him fifth in Lion history. “He’s the kind of guy that you don’t really appreciate until he’s gone,� Cruz said.

Team success, however, has eluded Lockin until now. Last season, the Lions started 21-12 but finished the season with 18 losses in 23 games.

“I thought we had the talent to get in the playoffs the last couple of years, but we just didn’t succeed for one reason or another,� he said. “But this is a different year, and this is a different team. We don’t think about it.�

Pepperdine kept its five-game lead in the West Division because San Francisco and Santa Clara also lost. Sophomore Stephen Kahn improved to 7-2 by giving up three runs and 11 hits over seven innings. Kahn got through the seventh by getting a line-drive out by Rooney with the bases loaded.

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Brittany Hayes scored three goals and USC rolled to a 9-5 victory over UC Santa Barbara in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation women’s water polo tournament at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Center.

The top-seeded Trojans (25-0) will play fifth-seeded Long Beach State today in a semifinal at 5 p.m.

Long Beach State (21-7) defeated San Diego State, 9-6.

UCLA, seeded No. 3, used a three-goal fourth quarter to pull away from California, 8-4. The Bruins (20-4) will play second-seeded Stanford today in the other semifinal at 6:15 p.m.

Stanford (19-3) routed Hawaii, 10-3.