SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Working to rebound from its first loss of the season, the Santa Clara baseball dropped the second game of its doubleheader with Illinois-Chicago by a final score of 12-1. Santa Clara falls to 5-2 while Illinois-Chicago moves to 2-4.
RHP Mike Couch (0-1; 4.91) made his second start of the season for Santa Clara and picked up the loss in 5.1 innings while allowing four runs on nine hits with four walks and three strikeouts. LF Pat Stover went 2-3 and RF C.J. Jacobe was 2-2 with a RBI.
The Broncos will wrap-up their series with Illinois-Chicago Sun., Feb. 25 at 10 a.m.
"We've already moved on to tomorrow," said Bronco head coach Dan O'Brien. "We had a good talk as a team about the pitfalls that we fell into today. I thought UIC played a much better game of baseball today than we did. Credit to them for bouncing back from last night. We clearly made a lot of mistakes today but we've already talked about it and we're going to learn from them and let them go and get ready for a good day at the yard tomorrow."
Couch struck out the lead-off batter but surrendered a single and hit SS Ryan Shober to put runners at first and second. After he balked the runners to second and third, RF Jon Ryan hit a solid base hit up the middle for two RBI. After a bloop two-out single to center put runners on the corners, 2B Cody Dykema struck out looking to end the inning with the score 2-0 Flames.
A leadoff walk to 1B Alex De LaRosa came back to hurt the Broncos. He advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored with two outs on a seeing-eye single up the middle to make the score 3-0.
On the first pitch Jacobe saw he smacked a single through the right side to lead off the bottom of the third. SS Justin Viele followed with a 6-4-3 double play. After CF Lucas Herbst was hit by a pitch, 1B Andrew Biancardi popped out to the catcher in foul territory to end the inning.
After gunning down a runner at the plate to end the top of the fifth, Jacobe roped a single to center to lead off the bottom of the inning. SS Justin Viele came within feet of knocking a ball out of the park but it hit the top of the wall for a double. Herbst was hit by a pitch to load the bases and the Flames pulled their starter RHP Brian Evak for RHP Collin Weyer. The first batter he faced was 1B Andrew Biancardi and he hit a sacrifice fly to center to score the first Santa Clara run of the game. Stover hit into a double play to end the inning with the score 3-1 Illinois-Chicago.
A lead-off double by Dykema and a sacrifice bunt by Kolakowski put a runner on a runner on third with only one out. CF Nick Addision knocked a grounder up the middle for a RBI single followed by a walk to Kolakowski. RHP Chirs Heckert came in to relieve Couch A passed ball and a throwing error allowed another run to score. Kolakowski advanced to third on a wild pick-off throw by Heckert. A walk to Shober put runners on the corners but he stole second to put two runners in scoring position. Ryan took advantage and went back up the middle to knock in two runs and make the score 7-1.
After 3B Joe Betcher led off the top of the seventh with a single, DH Alex Grunenwald hit a triple and Dykema smacked a double to left. With the score now 9-1 C Jacob McNamara walked to put runners on first and second. A throwing error by the centerfielder brought in the 10th Flames run of the game. RHP James Smith entered the game and gave up a sac fly where the runner scored from second base and a double to left to extend the score to 12-1.
The Broncos were unable to muster a rally in the bottom of the seventh and the game ended 12-1 in favor of Illinois-Chicago.
Game Notes: As part of a decision by both head coaches, the game only went seven innings ... first collegiate start for C.J. Jacobe ... the Broncos wore their alternate home red jerseys for the second game of the doubleheader ... Evan Peters came in as a defensive replacement at second base for Kyle DeMerritt in the top of the sixth ... LHP Evan Brisentine made is collegiate debut in the seventh inning.