March 10, 2006
SEATTLE, Wash. - In a slobber-knocker which saw the two teams combine for 24 runs and 29 hits, the Santa Clara baseball team's comeback bid fell just short as they dropped a 14-10 slugfest to the Washington Huskies Friday evening at Husky Ballpark.
The game also featured a mid-game delay of an hour and 31 minutes due to rain, lightning and ice pellets following the fourth inning.
The Broncos (10-8), after hitting only three home runs in their previous 17 games, got four Friday as Eric Newton smacked a pair of dingers while Dustin Realini and Gabriel Alcantar each added a homer. Newton's two long balls were part of a 3-for-5 effort in which he also drove in four runs. Alcantar drove in three and center fielder Matt Long had a fine day at the plate going 2-for-5 with his second triple of the year and two RBIs.
The teams will square off again tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. in the second game of the series. Bronco fans can follow the action with Gametracker on santaclarabroncos.com.
After escaping a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the top of the first, the Huskies (13-5) came out swinging their first time up, sending all nine batters to the plate and tallying three runs on the strength of a Bradley Boyer double and a Brett Kaluza RBI single to start the frame.
Santa Clara answered right away as Long's one-out triple plated Carl Bacon and Brady Fuerst to bring the deficit to 3-2. Alcantar's RBI groundout to second knotted the game up a batter later.
But Boyer and Kaluza started the Husky second off with a pair of hits again, and Matt Stevens' two-out single later in the inning was a big blow which helped UW put up five runs to put the Broncos in a quick hole.
Three more Husky runs in the fourth preceded the aforementioned delay, but when things got started up again 91 minutes later, the Bronco bats came alive. Three batters after Ryan Conan reached on an error to start the sixth, Alcantar whacked his first home run as a Bronco to help trim the deficit and an inning later, Newton's first homer of the game brought things to 11-8 after six-and-a-half.
But the Huskies put things away with a three-run eighth, benefiting from three walks, one of which forced in a run. Jake Rife's pinch-single following the run-scoring walk drove in two more, and although Newton again delivered a two-run homer in the ninth, Washington held on to take the first game of the series.