by Brandon Rebboah
SANTA CLARA, Calif.- Santa Clara (12-11) grinded out a 4-3, thirteen-inning victory over Cal State Bakersfield (18-7) highlighted by Drew Ozanne's game-winning RBI-single in the bottom of the 13th. After Cory Hall pitched nine innings and allowed just two runs, J.R. Graham (2-0) picked up the win for the Broncos by pitching four innings allowing just one run on two hits.
"It's almost surreal," said Drew Ozanne. "You don't realize what you just did until all your teammates are rushing towards you."
Hall had another great outing for the Broncos, giving up two runs on seven hits and striking out four batters.
Martin Medina put the Roadrunners on the board early with a RBI-single in the first inning.
In the seventh, Bakersfield took a 2-0 lead on a Ryan McIntyre sacrifice-fly.
The Broncos responded in the bottom of the inning with back-to-back singles by Patrick Terry and Curtis Wagner. Blake Leyva chopped a ball to the pitcher, avoided the tag at first and scored Terry from third base. Drew Ozanne followed with a pinch-hit RBI-single to tie the game at two.
The Broncos were unable to score a run in the bottom of the ninth and the game went to extra innings.
After a scoreless 10th inning, the Roadrunners took the lead, 3-2, in the top of the 11th on an RBI-single by Andrew Letourneau.
DeMerritt provided a leadoff single in the bottom of the 11th and advanced to second on a passed ball. Bakersfield closer Martin Medina got consecutive outs but then walked Matt Ozanne to put the winning run on first. Leyva came through with a two-out RBI-single to send the game to the 12th inning.
Graham returned to the mound and continued his dominance, retiring the side in order for a second time on the night.
"J.R. makes the other team beat him," said O'Brien. "He's a great competitor."
After a scoreless 12th inning, the Broncos came to the plate in the bottom of the 13th inning where Matt Ozanne singled and advanced on a groundout. Drew Ozanne came to the plate and hit a game-winning RBI-single to give the Broncos a 4-3 victory.
"That was certainly fun. Win or lose, that was a great college baseball game," said head coach Mark O'Brien. "When you go that long, somebody has to win. It might as well be us."
The series continues tomorrow, Saturday, Apr. 2 at 1 p.m.
Game Notes: The first pitch was thrown at 6:04 p.m.…Brian Roby made his second career start for the Broncos…Mike McCarthy started on the mound for the Roadrunners, pitching 9.0 innings and surrendering 2 runs…With Bakersfield at the plate, Oscar Sanay hit a ball to right field and tried to stretch his hit to a double but Lucas Herbst fired to second base where Viele applied the tag.