Baseball Blanks No. 7 Stanford, 2-0

Baseball Blanks No. 7 Stanford, 2-0

April 29, 2003

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STANFORD, Calif. - The Santa Clara University baseball team continued its hot play during the month of April with a 2-0 shutout of seventh-ranked Stanford Tuesday night at Sunken Diamond in Stanford, Calif. The win moves the Broncos' record during April to 13-3 while their overall record increases to 25-22. The Cardinal drop to 28-14 overall and 10-5 in April.

The win also gave Santa Clara skipper Mark O'Brien a milestone victory, as he becomes the eighth coach in Bronco Baseball history to reach the 50-win plateau. He joins former coaches Sal Taormina, Jerry McClain and John Oldham as the only coaches in SCU history to reach the historic win in their second season on the Mission Campus.

Santa Clara got on the scoreboard first in the top of the third inning with two runs on two hits, highlighted by an RBI single to right center field by Jack Headley that scored David Mandley from second. Scott Dierks also scored on the play as he moved to third on the hit and came home when Sam Fuld mishandled the Headley single in center. Mandley reached base on a fielder's choice that saw Jason Matteucci put out at second after he reached on the game's first hit of the game. Dierks reached when he was hit by a pitch for the 14th time this season.

The Broncos' pitching staff had its best showing of the season as eight pitchers combined for the four-hit shutout of the Cardinal who entered the game with a .316 team batting average. Scott Shapiro picked up his first win of the season as he tossed the first two innings and allowed only three walks in his outing.

Patrick McBride and Andrew Slorp combined to throw the next three innings and like Shapiro did not allow a hit or a run despite five walks from Slorp. Matt Krueger began the sixth inning and recorded one out before giving up the first Stanford hit of the game to Danny Putnam. Thomas Van Buskirk came in for Krueger and promptly struck out the next two batters to quell the Cardinal rally.

Anthony Rea allowed one hit and struck out one in the seventh inning before giving way to Chad Fillinger in the eighth. Fillinger sent the heart of the Stanford lineup down in order in the eighth, paving the way for Patrick Overholt in the ninth.

Overholt gave up a leadoff single to Donny Lucy to begin the inning but struck out the next two batters before giving up a bloop single to pinch-hitter John Mayberry Jr. With runners on the corners and two outs Overholt got Sam Fuld to ground into a 4-3 putout for his eighth save of the season.

Santa Clara returns to action this weekend for a big West Coast Conference series against Coast Division leading Pepperdine in Malibu, Calif. The Broncos trail the Waves by only one game heading into the series.