Feb. 7, 2003
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara University baseball team had its four-game win streak snapped in the 10th inning by UC Irvine Friday afternoon at Buck Shaw Stadium. The Anteaters handed the Broncos a 2-1 loss to open up the three-game weekend series on the Mission Campus.
Santa Clara (4-3) got on board first in the bottom of the third inning as A.J. LaBarbera singled to start the inning and advanced to third just one batter later on a UC Irvine (1-1) error. He scored on the next play despite the fact the Eric Newton grounded into a 5-4-3 double play.
The Anteaters evened the score in the fifth inning as B.J. Eucce singled to center field and stole second. He advanced to third on a flyout before scoring on a Matt Fisher single up the middle.
Matt Travis had another good outing for the Broncos, throwing 5 2/3 innings in which he allowed only one run on four hits while striking out five. Anthony Rea followed Travis and pitched well in his 2 1/3 innings, allowing only one hit to go along with his three strikeouts.
Joe Diefenderfer came on for SCU in the ninth inning and retired UCI in order. He allowed a leadoff double in the top of the 10th to Andy Amara who was pinch run for by Gary Dudrey. Jon Horwitz sacrificed Dudrey over to third, bringing up Fisher. The Broncos turned to Patrick Overholt out of the bullpen who struck out Fisher, but the pitch got passed catcher Jim Wallace allowing Fisher to reach base on the wild pitch. Steve Guthrie stepped to the plate and put down a perfect sacrifice bunt along the first base line that scored Dudrey, giving the Anteaters a 2-1 lead.
Jason Matteucci led off the 10th inning for the Broncos and reached base and advanced to second base on a fielding error by Guthrie. Matteucci would go no further however as Michael Thompson lined out to shortstop, David Mandley grounded out to third and Jim Wallace flied out to deep right center field to end the game.
Kris Krise picked up the win for UCI, throwing two full innings in which he allowed no runs and only one hit. Chris Nicoll picked up his first save of the year as he pitched the final inning for the Anteaters.
The same two teams resume the series on Saturday afternoon at Buck Shaw Stadium. The first pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.