April 4, 2003
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - On a chilly afternoon in The City, the Santa Clara University baseball team took the opening game of a three-game series against San Francisco by a score of 5-2 Friday afternoon at Benedetti Diamond.
The win moved Santa Clara's record to 14-19 overall and 6-4 in West Coast Conference play while dropping USF's record to 13-20 overall and 6-7 in league competition.
The Broncos got on the board in the top of the second inning as five consecutive hits led to three runs, giving SCU a 3-0 lead. Scott Shapiro led off the hit barrage in the inning with a double to right center before moving to third base on a single by Michael Thompson. Shapiro scored and Thompson moved up to second on a single through the left side by Mark Folgner. Another single by Michael Lange loaded the bases before a Scott Dierks looping line drive single drove in Thompson. A Jack Headley fielder's choice led to Folgner scoring from third.
The Dons trimmed the Bronco lead by one with three consecutive two-out hits plating one run to cut the SCU advantage down to 3-1. Jason Howard singled through the middle with two outs and moved to second on a single to left field by Armand Gaerlan. Howard scored on a sharp single to left center by Joe Jacobitz, but that was all that USF could muster as Nick Cirbo popped up to end the inning on the next at-bat.
Santa Clara added two runs in the top of the seventh inning as Dierks led off the inning with his 11th home run of the season, a line drive solo home run that cleared the 313 sign in left field. Matteucci reached on a walk and advanced to second on a fielder's choice. He moved up to third on a Shaprio walk before scoring on a Michael Thompson single to left field, moving the score to 5-1 in favor of SCU.
San Francisco got one of those runs back in the bottom of the seventh as Nick Tarbat clubbed a one-out single and scored on a RBI double to right center field by Gaerlan off of Santa Clara starter Matt Travis, narrowing the Bronco lead down to 5-2.
Travis threw seven full innings in which he allowed only two runs on eight hits to go along with one walk and six strikeouts before giving way to Anthony Rea to start the eighth inning. Rea allowed only a walk in his one inning on the mound before giving way to the closer Patrick Overholt.
Overholt picked up his second save of the year while helping Travis' record to 3-5 on the season after getting the final three outs, two of which were by strikeout, despite allowing a walk and hitting a batter in the ninth.
Dierks continued his hot hitting by finishing the day with two hits in four at-bats with two runs batted in, giving him the team lead in that category with 21 on the year. He already led the team in batting average, home runs, slugging percentage and on base percentage.
The same two teams will meet for game two of the three-game set Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Benedetti Diamond on the USF campus.