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SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Facing the No. 14 team in the country, Santa Clara baseball lost to Stanford by a final of 10-5. With the loss the Broncos move to 25-26 while Stanford is now 37-14.
RHP Tommy Nance (4-5; 3.80) made the start for Santa Clara and only went 1.0 inning to stay on track to make the start on Friday. Nance gave up one run on one hits with no walks and two strikeouts and was the hard-luck loser. On offense, 2B Kyle DeMerritt went 2-4 with a double and 1B Andrew Biancardi also collected two hits with a RBI.
Santa Clara wraps-up its season with senior weekend May 25-27 vs. LMU at Schott Stadium. The first game of the series will be Friday with first-pitch scheduled for 6 p.m.
CF Jake Stewart crushed the first pitch of the game over the left field wall to give Stanford the early 1-0 lead. Nance would settle down and get the next three hitters in order with a groundout and two strikeouts.
Stewart and 2B Danny Diekroeger drew back-to-back walks to start the top of the third. LF Stephen Piscotty grounded out to move the runners up and 1B Brian Ragira hit into a fielder's choice that saw Stewart gunned down at home. RF Austin Wilson hit a grounder to third but Evan Peters made a bad throw and the second Stanford run came across. 3B Alex Blandino lined out to third for the final out.
Santa Clara made the score 2-1 in the bottom of the third by taking advantage of a Stanford error. SS Justin Viele led off the inning with a single up the middle and after two quick outs CF Lucas Herbst hit a deep fly to right field that was dropped for a three-base error. LF Pat Stover flied out for the third out.
Stewart and Diekroeger led-off the fifth with back-to-back singles. Piscotty smoked a ball to shortstop for a double play but RHP James Smith couldn't escape the inning as Ragira singled to left field to extend the Stanford lead to 3-1. Ragira stole second and moved to third on the throw that went into center field. Wilson roped a ball off the left field wall for a RBI double. With Wilson on second, Blandino singled through the left side to score the third Cardinal run of the inning. Blandino was caught stealing to finally end the inning.
Santa Clara got one of the runs back in the bottom of the inning when Viele led off with a walk and Harisis singled on a bunt to put two on. After back-to-back strike outs, Stover singled in Viele to make the score 5-2. Biancardi fled out to end the inning.
DH Quinton Perry crushed a home run to lead off home run in the sixth to bring the Broncos within two at 5-3.
In the top of the seventh Stewart doubled to left center and moved up on a fly out. Piscotty hit a grounder to third and the Broncos tried to get the runner coming home but the throw was late and the Cardinal were up 6-3.
The Broncos got within one run as DeMerritt led off the home half of the seventh with a double to right center and was pinch run for by Justin Gisch. Herbst grounded out to second to advance Gisch and a passed ball allowed the run to come in. Stover was hit by a pitch and moved to third on a steal and an error. Biancardi would knock in the fourth Santa Clara run with a single up the middle. Perry went down swinging and Biancardi was caught stealing for an inning ending double play.
Stanford got the two runs back in the eighth when C Wayne Taylor singled with two outs and Stewart hit his second home run of the game to put the score at 8-5 Cardinal before Diekroger lined out to end the frame.
The top of the ninth saw Stanford put up two more runs. After a quick out, Ragira was hit by a pitch and Wilson singled to right. After a fly out, DH Jose Dominic doubled in both runners and was gunned down trying to extend it to a triple.
Harisis singled to right field to start things off for the Broncos in the bottom of the ninth but the next two Broncos went down before Stover drew a two-out walk to put two runners on. Biancardi came to the plate and flied out to the right fielder to seal the win for Stanford.
Game Notes: First pitch was at 6:04 ... attendance was 575 ... Santa Clara turned a double play in the top of the eighth when the base runner wasn't sure if the right fielder caught a pop up.