PROVO, Utah - Continuing its road woes, Santa Clara baseball lost to BYU in the second game of a three-game series 7-3. The loss drops Santa Clara below .500 for the second time this season at 24-25 overall and 3-17 is conference games. BYU moves to 21-24 and 9-11 in WCC play.
LHP Powell Fansler (5-5; 4.06) struggled with his command in the start and hit four batters, all left-handers in the third inning, while picking up the loss. He went 2.2 innings while allowing three runs on three hits with one walk and no strike outs. 2B Greg Harisis led off for the Broncos and went 1-4 with a double, a walk, a run scored and a RBI.
The series wraps-up tomorrow, Sat., May 19 at 12 p.m. The game will be broadcast nationally on BYUTV.
SS Tanner Chauncey drew a one out walk in the bottom of the fourth and LF Kelton Caldwell followed with a single to right that moved Chauncey to third. CF Austin Hall hit a grounder to second that Harisis missed to allow a run to score. Caldwell was thrown out at second base on the play for the second out of the inning. DH Alex Wolfe followed with a single to center but 1B Brock Whitney flied out to right to end the inning.
After two quick outs in the top of the second, SS Justin Viele singled to left and moved to second on a balk. Harisis doubled in Viele to tie the game at 1-1. After 3B Evan Peters was hit by a pitch, CF Lucas Herbst singled to center to bring in another run for Santa Clara. Pat Stover ended the inning with a strike out.
Fansler lost his command in the bottom of the third and led off the inning by hitting RF Jaycob Brugman with a pitch. Chauncey grounded out to first to advance the runner and Caldwell was the second Cougar to be hit by a pitch in the inning. Fansler got Hall to fly out, but hit Wolfe with a pitch to load the bases. Whitney came through with a two-out, two-run single to center to put BYU on top 3-2. C Wes Guenther was also hit by a pitch to end the night for Fansler. RHP Chris Heckert came in and got the final out of the inning on a fielder's choice.
2B Adam Law drew a walk to start the bottom of fourth against Heckert and Brugman followed with a long home run to right field to extend the Cougar lead to three. RHP James Smith came in to pitch and walked two batters but got a strike out and a double play to escape the jam.
Caldwell hit the second BYU homer of the night with one out in the bottom of the sixth. Hall followed with a double to left and Wolfe walked. After Hall was caught attempting to steal third and Wolfe moved up to second, Whitney singled to left to make the score 7-3 in favor of BYU.
In the top of the ninth pinch-hitter Kyle DeMerritt struck out swinging and Herbst popped out to second for two quick outs. Stover hit an infield single but pinch-hitter Quinton Perry went down swinging to give BYU its second win in as many days.