SANTA CLARA, Calif.- After winning a 14-inning marathon on Friday, Santa Clara (12-13) dropped two consecutive games, losing Sunday's series finale 7-2. Chris Mendoza was charged with the loss, allowing four runs on nine hits in 4.2 innings. Tommy Hoenshell picked up the win for Bakersfield, pitching a two run complete game. Despite the loss, Drew Ozanne continued to make the most of his playing time, picking up his fourth and fifth RBI of the weekend.
"Bakersfield is a very good team," said head coach Mark O'Brien. "They are one of the best teams we've played all season. You have to beat them [they aren't going to beat themselves]. I thought we did really well on Friday, I just thought we had a couple big runs hurt us [the last two games]."
After a scoreless first inning, Mendoza surrendered two singles in the second to put runners on the corners with no outs. Mendoza forced DC Legg into a 6-4-3 double play, but Andrew Letourneau scored from third to give the Roadrunners a 1-0 lead going into the bottom of the second.
In the fourth, CS Bakersfield (20-7) extended their lead to four on a two-RBI-double by Legg and a RBI-single.
The Roadrunners added another run on a Santa Clara error in the fifth. After Mendoza put runners on the corners with two outs, Powell Fansler relieved him and provided a strike out to get out of the inning.
Bakersfield extended their lead to six on a triple by Ryan McIntyre that scored the runner from first.
In the seventh, Curtis Wagner singled, and Patrick Terry added his second single of the day. But, despite putting runners on first and second, the Broncos were unable to provide any timely hitting.
After Bakersfield extended their lead to 7-0, the Broncos started the bottom of the ninth with two consecutive singles by Kyle DeMerritt and Curtis Wagner. Matt Ozanne walked to load the base, and with two outs, Drew Ozanne continued came through with a two-RBI-single to shorten the Bakersfield lead to five runs.
The Broncos now start to prepare for the WCC portion of their schedule. They open conference play with a home series against Loyola Marymount on Friday, Apr. 8.
"We now have to start preparing for our new season," said head coach Mark O'Brien. "It's really simple, it's a 21-game world series. I like where we are at headed into this. If we play good baseball we'll have a chance to compete."
Game Notes: The first pitch was thrown at 1:02 p.m. …Drew Ozanne's start at DH was his third consecutive, his longest streak of the year…the Broncos turned two double plays.
