STOCKTON, Calif. – Hitting the road for a midweek game against a future West Coast Conference opponent, Santa Clara baseball ended its losing streaking by beating Pacific by a final of 7-5. With the win the Broncos are now 9-21 overall while the Tigers move to 9-18.
Santa Clara returns to the field on Fri., April 12 at 6 p.m. vs. San Francisco at Schott Stadium.
Mike Couch (3-5, 3.52) started for Santa Clara and picked up a no-decision in 2.0 innings. Couch allowed one run on three hits. Kenny Treadwell (1-0, 5.27) picked up the win with 2.2 innings of one-hit relief. D.J. Zapata (0-1, 6.07) got his second save of the year with a perfect ninth. The offense was led by Justin Viele who was 2-5 with a triple, a run scored and two RBI. Zach Looney was 2-5 with a run scored while Kyle DeMerritt went 2-3 with a double, a triple, two runs scored and a RBI.
Jake Jenkins (0-2, 10.12) started for Pacific and went 4.2 innings while getting a loss. Jenkins allowed three runs on six hits with two walks and two strikeouts. Erik Lockwood was 3-4 with two doubles, two runs scored and a RBI to lead the offense. Gio Brusa was 2-4 with three RBI while Dustin Torchio scored two runs.
Pacific jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first. Torchio was hit by a pitch with one out and came around to score when Lockwood doubled to center field.
Santa Clara tied the game in the top of the fourth. Looney led off the inning with a single to left and moved to second on a groundout. Greg Harisis followed with a RBI single to center to make the score 1-1.
The Broncos took the lead in the fifth for good. DeMerritt doubled to left and pinch-hitter Ben Wright followed with a walk. After a failed sacrifice bunt, Viele singled through the left side for a RBI. Looney loaded the bases with a single but Casey Munoz lined out to second for the second out of the inning. Harisis drew a walk to force in a run and five Santa Clara the 3-1 lead through four and a half innings.
Santa Clara scored for the third consecutive inning in the top of the sixth. Matt Ozanne doubled to left center to get things going and DeMerritt followed with a RBI triple to right. Wright would reach on an error that allowed DeMerritt to score and Stephen Takahashi followed with a sacrifice bunt. Viele followed with a triple to left center and came in to score the fourth run of the inning on a wild pitch.
The Tigers responded with a two-spot in the home half of the sixth get within four at 7-3. Torichio was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Lockwood followed with a single up the middle. Brett Sullivan laid down a bunt to advance the runners and Brusa came through with a two-RBI single through the right side.
Pacific cut the deficit to two in the bottom of the eighth. Lockwood and Sullivan led hit back-to-back doubles to start the inning and Bursa followed with a single up the middle to make the score 7-5. Chris Mendoza bounced back to get the next three outs.
Zapata came in and had a 1-2-3 ninth to wrap-up the win for the Broncos.