PALO ALTO, Calif. - Doing his best Jim Edmonds or Ken Griffey Jr., imitation, Nate Simon saved the day for Pepperdine.

With the game on the line Friday in the opening round of the NCAA Stanford Regional, Simon showed why the Waves are considered a defensive juggernaut. As Arkansas was attempting to pull off a ninth-inning rally - fighting back to within 4-3 - Simon decided there would be no Razorback heroics on this day at Sunken Diamond.

"I thought he was going to catch it for sure at first," Pepperdine shortstop Chase d'Arnaud said. "Then I saw it drifting away from him and I was like, 'Oh my gosh this is going to be close.'

"When he caught it I just gave a big Tiger Woods fist pump."

As did the entire Pepperdine dugout.

Up with two on and two outs in top of ninth, Arkansas' Casey Coon sent a somewhat lazy shot towards the left-center gap. At first glance, the ball looked like an easy catch for Simon. But once the wind came into play, everyone had to hold their breath until Simon made the dazzling, diving play to end Arkansas' hopes for a first-round win.

"(Casey) kind of hit it off the end of the bat and when it left the bat, I thought it was an out," Diamond Hogs coach Dave Van Horn said. "Then I realized the centerfielder was running hard and the wind was kind of pushing it away from him and the ball had a little overspin on it.

"So for a split second there I thought it might drop. But it was one of those dives where he wasn't extended the whole way, but he had to dive to make the play. The question was could he hold onto it, and he did."

Texas Two Step

Grayson County Community College had to be awfully proud Friday. After all, two of Grayson's former players made an appearance in the Arkansas-Pepperdine game.

Both Pepperdine starting pitcher Nathan Newman and Arkansas relief pitcher Mike Bolsinger played for Grayson CC - a small junior college located in Denison, Texas.

In fact, Newman and Bolsinger were teammates at Grayson in 2007, helping the team to a 43-13 record and a conference title.

Odds and Ends

Sophomore Dallas Keuchel will make his 11th start of the season today. Keuchel is 4-2 with a 4.46 earned run average in 2008... A crowd of roughly 75 Arkansas fans gathered at Sunken Diamond for Friday's game... The Razorbacks were one of five SEC teams to lose their opening round game in the NCAA Regionals.