SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Wrapping-up its first West Coast Conference home series of 2013, Santa Clara baseball fell to BYU by a final score of 5-2. The Broncos are now 8-21 overall and 0-9 in conference while the Cougars are 17-14 and 5-4 in WCC action.
The Broncos return to the field on Tues., April 9 at 6 p.m. at Pacific.
Powell Fansler (0-0, 0.00) made his first start, and second appearance of the year, for Santa Clara and picked up a no-decision in 4.0 innings. Fansler allowed no runs on one hit with one walk and one strikeout. Max Deering (1-3, 4.05) got the loss in 1.1 innings of relief while allowing one run on one hit with a walk and a strikeout. The offense was led by Greg Harisis who was 1-3 with a RBI. Matt Ozanne added a walk and a run scored while Zach Looney was 1-3 with a triple and a RBI.
Keaton Cenatiempo (1-2, 5.61) started for BYU and got a no-decision in 4.2 innings. Cenatiempo allowed two runs on three hits with two walks and three strikeouts. Derek Speigner (3-0, 1.27) got the win in 4.1 innings of perfect relief. The offense was led by Bret Lopez who was 2-3 with a walk, a home run, a double, a RBI and three runs scored. Adam Law was 3-4 with a double and a run scored while Hayden Nielsen was 2-3 with a walk and a RBI.
Santa Clara jumped out to its first lead of the series in the bottom of the second. M. Ozanne drew a one out walk and stole second. Looney tripled to right center two batters late to bring home the run.
BYU tied the game in the top of the fifth off of new Bronco pitcher Tommy Nance. Lopez walked to start the inning and Jarrett Jarvis laid down a sac bunt but reached first on an error by Nance. Brennon Anderson followed a sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third. Nielsen singled up the middle to knock in a run but M. Ozanne gunned down the second runner at the plate.
The Broncos retook the lead in the bottom of the inning with some two out thunder. Drew Ozanne singled to left field and moved to second on a wild pitch in front of a Justin Viele walk. Harisis singled up the middle to knock in a run and both base runners moved up on an error by the center fielder.
On the first pitch of the seventh inning, Lopez tied the game with a booming home run to left center. Jarrett Jarvis followed by reaching on an error and Tommy Nance was lifted for Max Deering. After the first out was recorded, Deering threw a wild pitch to put the go-ahead run in scoring position. Nielsen walked and Jacob Hannemann grounded out to first to advance the runners, but a ground out to short ended the inning with the score 2-2.
Law got the top of the eighth going with a double off the wall in left center. Deering got a strikeout of Jaycob Brugman and was lifted for Kenny Treadwell. Whitney singled past a diving Viele at short for a RBI single and an error by Kert Woods in left let Whitney move up to second. Lopez followed with a double over the right fielder's head to bring in another run and Treadwell was taken out for D.J. Zapata. Jarvis reached on an error by Harisis at third to put runners on the corners and prolong the inning. Lopez came in to score on a sac fly by Kelton Caldwell to extend the lead to 5-2.
Game Notes: First pitch was at 1:02 … Time of game was 2:43 … Attendance was 284 … Tommy Nance picked off Adam Law to end the top of the sixth … Kert Woods was hit by a pitch in the seventh but was pick off … Santa Clara head coach Dan O'Brien was thrown out for arguing a call in the top of the eighth.