March 19, 2006
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The brooms were broken out Sunday as the Santa Clara University baseball team earned their first three-game series sweep of the season, taking both ends of a doubleheader against the Northwestern Wildcats. The Broncos triumphed 4-1 in the opener then used a pair of homers in the nightcap to complete the sweep with a 10-4 victory.
With the wins the Broncos improve to 13-11 on the season heading into their final non-conference weekend series next Saturday through Monday at Hawaii-Hilo. Following next weekend's four-game series in Hilo, the Broncos will turn their attention towards the West Coast Conference, opening up play against the San Francisco Dons Friday night, March 31 at 7 p.m. at Stephen Schott Stadium. Tickets are available for the March 31-April 2 series by calling (408) 554-4660 or by visiting the Leavey Center ticket office.
Game one starter Matt Wickswat earned his fourth win of the season against Northwestern (3-11) by tossing six and a third scoreless innings, scattering five hits and striking out a pair of Wildcats. Jeff Lombard and Mark Willinsky cleaned up after their teammate, with Willinsky earning his fifth save of the season by going the final one and a third and striking out two.
Daniel Nava went 3-for-4 with two triples, giving him four on the season. Eric Newton's third home run of the season, a solo job in the fourth, helped the Broncos strike first off of Wildcats starter George Kontos.
In the nightcap, backstop Kris Watts was the big hitter, setting the tone early with a three-run bomb to right-center which opened the floodgates right away against Wildcat starter Ryan Myers. On the game Watts was 2-for-4 with four RBIs, as he added an RBI single in the fifth.
Michael Lange was also responsible for the scoring in Santa Clara's big fifth inning as he came through with a bases-clearing triple that blew the game wide open at 9-2.
On the hill, Justin Kuehn improved his record to 2-3 on the season with a strong six inning effort and Chris Stansbury finished things off with three hitless innings, striking out three.
Ryan Conan capped off SCU's big day at the plate with a solo blast off of the flag pole in left field, his first of the season.