May 16, 2006
STANFORD, Calif. - Despite a quick offensive outburst Tuesday evening, the Santa Clara University baseball team fell victim to one of the same from Stanford as the Cardinal overcame a six-run deficit to capture victory and the season series against the Broncos 11-7 at Sunken Diamond Stadium.
Stanford did most of the damage in the fifth, getting eight runs on seven hits, including home runs from Chris Minaker and Jason Castro. Michael Taylor also posted the first five-game hit of his career, going 5-for-5 for the Cardinal with a double and two runs scored.
With the loss the Broncos finish the 2006 season with an overall record of 28-26 and 9-12 in the West Coast Conference. The win was the seventh-straight for Stanford, which improves to 28-21 overall.
In his final game wearing the Santa Clara uniform, senior Jason Matteucci slapped a single to right for his 220th career hit as a Bronco, cracking the top ten of SCU's all-time career hits list. Matteucci ends his four-year SCU career tied with Kevin Okimoto (1996-99) for tenth all-time.
Kevin Drever paced the Bronco offense with his second 4-for-4 performance of the season Tuesday, including his ninth double of the season, while also scoring three runs. Carl Bacon hit well in his second-consecutive start behind the plate, going 2-for-4 with a double and crushing his second homer of the season in the fourth inning.
Daniel Nava singled twice and drove in a run, bringing his WCC-leading batting average to .395, and Kris Watts was 2-for-4 with a double and drove in a pair of runs.
Daniel DeMarco gave up five runs in two and a third innings to take the loss, dropping his record to 5-4. Erik Davis (1-1) tossed a pair of innings for the Cardinal to earn his first win of the season.
Things started off well enough for Santa Clara, as the Broncos got three hits and capitalized on a pair of errors by the Cardinal to take a quick three-run lead. Drever led the contest off with a walk and advanced to second on a groundout. A Nava single put runners on the corners for Watts, who delivered with an RBI single to drive in the game's first run and chase Stanford starter Max Fearnow.
A handling error on Stanford third baseman Randy Molina on Nava's steal of third allowed the Bronco runner to score and Watts to advance to second. With two outs, Matteucci's single to right scored Watts, helped along by a fielding error in right which allowed Matteucci to advance all the way to third.
The third Stanford error of the contest allowed the Broncos to extend their lead to four in the second. Drever again started the run with a two-out single, and the inning was kept alive as a fielding error allowed Matt Long to reach safely. After Nava was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Watts drove in his second run of the game by drawing a walk.
Bacon led things off in the fourth with a towering shot to right which extended the Bronco lead to 5-0. Drever's double to left was followed two batters later by Nava's second single of the game which drove in SCU's sixth run.
Santa Clara cruised along until the fifth inning, when the Stanford bats came alive in a big way. Molina and Joey August led things off with singles to put runners on the corners against Bronco reliever Jeff Lombard. Jim Rapoport singled to left to drive in Stanford's first run of the game before Ryan Seawell was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
John Hester then stroked an opposite-field double which halved the SCU lead at 6-3. Daniel DeMarco relieved Lombard as this point, and Minaker welcomed him to the game with a three-run homer over the scoreboard in left to knot things up at 6-6.
Michael Taylor doubled down the line in right for Stanford's seventh-straight hit of the inning, and after DeMarco got the first out of the inning a batter later, Castro's pinch-hit, two-run homer to right gave the Cardinal a two-run lead that they would never relinquish.
The Cardinal tacked on three more runs in the seventh, as with one away Taylor's fourth hit of the ballgame was followed by Chris Lewis' RBI double. A walk and hit batsman with two away loaded the bases for Rapoport, who smacked a base hit to left to drive in Stanford's final two runs of the contest.
The Broncos got one back in the eighth as Bacon led off the inning with a double. Drever followed with his fourth hit of the contest, and Long brought Bacon home with a sacrifice fly to center.
SCU almost added more in the ninth after Watts doubled in what was to be his final at-bat as a Bronco, but the rally stalled and the Broncos were dealt their seventh loss in their final nine games.