SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Santa Clara baseball plays its 2015 home-opening series this weekend after spending the first four games of the year on the road. The Broncos welcome the Cincinnati Bearcats to Schott Stadium for a Friday night contest at 6 p.m. followed by a Saturday doubleheader, with a first pitch time of 3 p.m. for Game 1 and Game 2 set to start 30 minutes after the first game's final out.
The Broncos enter the matchup at 1-3 overall after taking one of three from defending national champion and unanimous preseason No. 1 Vanderbilt at Hawkins Field last weekend and falling to UC Davis on Tuesday. The Bearcats, also at 1-3, are coming off one victory against Miami (Ohio) in the season opener Friday before three losses against Mississippi State in Starkville.
QUICK PITCHES
Games 5-7 Santa Clara (1-3) vs. Cincinnati (1-3)
Dates: Fri., Feb. 20, 2015 — 6 p.m. PST
Sat., Feb. 21, 2015 — 3 p.m. PST
Sat., Feb. 21, 2015 — 30 Minutes after Final Out of Game 1
Venue: Stephen Schott Stadium, Calif.
Video: portal.stretchinternet.com/santaclara
Live Stats: santaclara.statbroadcast.com
Series Record: 2-1-0 SCU
First Meeting: 2013
Last Meeting: May 12, 2013 — SCU won 3-2 at Marge Schott Stadium
PROBABLE PITCHERS
Fri., Feb. 20, 6 p.m. PST
SCU: RHP Jacob Steffens (0-1, 7.20 ERA) vs. CIN: RHP Andrew Zellner (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Sat., Feb. 21, 3 p.m. PST
SCU: RHP Steven Wilson (0-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. CIN: LHP Dalton Lehnen (0-1, 16.88 ERA)
Sat., Feb. 21, 30 Minutes after Final Out of Game 1
SCU: RHP Peter Hendron (0-0, 9.00 ERA) vs. CIN: TBA
Steffens threw 5.0+ innings and allowed four earned runs on eight hits with two walks and four strikeouts in the season opener at Vanderbilt — his first Friday night start with the Broncos. Zellner threw 5.0 shutout innings, allowing four runs and five walks alongside four strikeouts to earn the win in the season-opening victory against Miami last Friday.
Wilson, the reigning WCC Rawlings Player of the Week, threw 6.0 innings and allowed three earned runs on eight hits with five strikeouts and three walks for a quality start in Game 1 of last weekend's Saturday doubleheader in Nashville. He finished with a no decision after leaving at the end of the sixth with a 5-3 Bronco lead. Lehnen allowed six runs (five earned) on seven hits with two walks and three strikeouts in 2.2 innings of a 6-2 loss to Mississippi State as part of the second game in a Friday doubleheader.
Hendron finished his first start of the season with a line of 4.0+ innings, four earned runs on eight hits with two strikeouts and three walks Saturday at Vanderbilt in Game 2 of a doubleheader.
BRONCOS AND BEARCATS
In the season opener Friday night, Santa Clara lost 4-0 to the defending national champion Commodores behind a combined three-hit shutout from Carson Fulmer and Philip Pfeifer. Due to cold weather in Sunday's forecast, the schedule changed to feature a Saturday doubleheader to round out the series.
In Game 1, the Broncos rallied from a 6-5 deficit in the ninth to win 7-6. Jose Vizcaino, Jr. scored the game-winning run by stealing home and Reece Karalus struck out the side in the ninth to clinch the victory. Santa Clara and Vanderbilt battled to a 5-5 tie by the end of the fifth inning in Game 2, which held for four innings before the Commodores broke through with a walkoff on a Bronco error to end the game in the 10th.
Vizcaino, Jr. and Kyle Cortopassi were the only two Broncos with three or more hits last weekend as Vizcaino went 5-for-10 and Cortopassi went 3-for-9. As a team, the Broncos drew 21 walks to Vanderbilt's 16. The Broncos held the Commodores to 3-for-5 in stolen base attempts in 28 innings. Vanderbilt stole 120 bases last season. Steven Wilson's quality start paced the Broncos to a Game 1 victory in Saturday's doubleheader. Reece Karalus earned a win in Game 1 of the doubleheader by striking out the side with a one-run lead in the ninth.
In Tuesday's game at UC Davis, Santa Clara fell behind 3-0 in the first inning and dropped the game 4-1. The Bronco pitching staff combined to hold Davis hitless over the last seven innings.
In the season opener against Miami (Ohio) Cincinnati's pitching staff allowed 10 hits and the Bearcats played error-free defense en route to a 3-1 win. Ian Happ led the offense by going 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored. Cincinnati lost its next three games to Mississippi State by a combined score of 41-14, with the Diamond Dogs scoring as many as 19 in a single game.
Happ, a preseason Third-Team All-American who is on the Golden Spikes Award 50-Man Preseason Watch List, recorded multiple hits in all three of Cincinnati's matchups against Mississippi State. The AAC Preseason Player of the Year went 7-for-16 with two doubles, two home runs, four RBIs, and four runs scored through the first four games. Ryan Noda went 6-for-14 with two home runs, four RBIs, four runs scored and a team-leading .556 on-base percentage.
A LONG DAY AT THE YARD
Santa Clara and Vanderbilt were originally scheduled to play a Friday, Saturday, Sunday series at Hawkins Field on opening weekend. Due to cold weather conditions for last Sunday's forecast — with the high temperature expected to peak at 30 degrees — the finale was moved to Saturday and the teams played a doubleheader.
Total game time for the Valentine's Day twin bill spanned seven hours and 53 minutes. Temperatures peaked in the high 40s for the start of Game 1 and dropped to as low as the high 20s by the end of the night — with wind chills making the cold feel as low as 15 degrees.
The Broncos used eight different pitchers — including Kevin George and Reece Karalus in both games — while the Commodores used seven. All told, the 15 arms combined to throw 720 pitches. Between the two one-run victories, there were 19 runs scored on 42 hits with five errors.
Santa Clara plays Saturday doubleheaders each of the next two weekends, facing Cincinnati Feb. 21 and Eastern Michigan Feb. 28. Both doubleheaders will take place at Stephen Schott Stadium.
WILSON, VIZCAINO, JR., SWEEP WCC RAWLINGS PITCHER AND PLAYER OF THE WEEK AWARDS
After winning the first game of a Saturday doubleheader at defending national champion and unanimous preseason No. 1 Vanderbilt over the weekend, Santa Clara baseball has swept the first West Coast Conference Rawlings Player and Pitcher of the Week awards for the 2015 season. Redshirt sophomore starting pitcher Steven Wilson and junior shortstop Jose Vizcaino, Jr. garnered the honors — announced by the WCC Monday — for their performances in Nashville.
WCC RAWLINGS PITCHER OF THE WEEK - STEVEN WILSON - RS SO. - RHP
Steven Wilson set the tone for the Broncos in their Saturday victory over the Commodores. He tossed a quality start by throwing 6.0 innings in Game 1 of a doubleheader and allowing three earned runs while striking out five.
After surrendering two runs in the first, Wilson held the Commodores to a single run over the next five frames as the Broncos built a 5-3 lead through his departure after the sixth. He was the only pitcher in the series to throw more than five innings, and punctuated the effort by striking out the last batter he faced.
WCC RAWLINGS PLAYER OF THE WEEK - JOSE VIZCAINO, JR. - JR. - SS
Jose Vizcaino, Jr. set the table by hitting .500 and posting a .667 on-base percentage for the Broncos on the road at Vanderbilt. He went 5-for-10 with a double, an RBI, two runs scored and five walks — four of which he drew in Game 2 of a Saturday doubleheader. He also made seven putouts and assisted on six more as part of a 1.000 fielding percentage in 28 innings at shortstop.
The Broncos took Game 1 of that Saturday doubleheader 7-6, in which the Santa Clara junior went 2-for-4 with a walk and a run scored. With one out in the top of the ninth, the 2014 First Team All-WCC selection stole home to break a 6-6 tie en route to a Bronco victory.
Vizcaino, Jr. was also one of 14 Division I players selected to the CollegeBaseball360.com Weekly Honor Roll.
A FRESH LOOK
In its three games at Vanderbilt, Santa Clara started four freshmen in the field — first baseman Jake Brodt, second baseman Joe Becht, third baseman Evan Haberle and right fielder Grant Meylan. The Broncos also started Edmonds Community College transfers TC Florentine in center field and Ryan Budnick at DH. Freshman pitchers Mitchell White and Josh Inouye also made their Santa Clara debuts.
HEAD COACHES
Dan O'Brien, the 36th head coach in school history with a program that dates back to 1883, enters his fourth season on the Mission campus in 2014-15. His record with the Broncos is 67-100 (.401 winning percentage).
Bronco Baseball finished the 2014 season with a 26-30 overall record, including a 16-11 West Coast Conference mark good for a tie for fourth and an appearance in the WCC Baseball Championship. Head Coach Dan O'Brien's Broncos won seven WCC series overall, including five straight to close out the regular season, beginning with a three-game sweep of the San Diego Toreros at Fowler Park. The team that featured six all-WCC honorees won the most conference games for the program since 2004.
The team started the 2013 season with back-to-back wins over Seattle and wrapped up the year with a victory at LMU. The Broncos took down Stanford 3-0 on May 14. In O'Brien's first season in 2012, the Broncos started the year 5-0 with wins over Texas State, Wichita State, Louisiana-Lafayette and Cal Poly. Santa Clara would go on to win 26 games, the most since 2008.
Over eight seasons with his alma mater UCSD, O'Brien's Tritons qualified for five NCAA Division II West Regional showings, two NCAA National Championship Finals appearances and set a school record for wins four times. His accolades include:
2011 Daktronics West Region Coach of the Year
2011 NCBWA West Region Co-Coach of the Year
2011 CCAA Coach of the Year
2010 NCBWA National Coach of the Year
2010 ABCA/Rawlings West Region Coach of the Year
2010 NCBWA West Region Coach of the Year
2010 CCAA Coach of the Year
2010 FieldTurf Coach of the Year
2009 NCBWA National Coach of the Year
2009 ABCA/Rawlings West Region Coach of the Year
2009 CCAA Coach of the Year
Ty Neal, the 27th head coach in Cincinnati Bearcats baseball history, is in his second season with the program. He enters the weekend with a 23-34 (.404 winning percentage) overall record. Neal and the Bearcats opened the 2015 season against the head coach's alma mater, Miami (Ohio), where he graduated from in 1999.
WCC PRESEASON POLLS/ALL-CONFERENCE
The West Coast Conference announced the 2015 Preseason Poll and All-WCC teams Wed., Feb. 11, and Bronco baseball junior closer Reece Karalus as well as junior shortstop Jose Vizcaino Jr. have been selected to the preseason all-conference team.
Vizcaino Jr. was one of two Broncos to appear in all 56 games of the season and his 54 starts were the most for Santa Clara in 2014. He played primarily at shortstop and led the team in batting average (.323), hits (65), triples (3, t-Greg Harisis), RBIs (28) and stolen bases (11). The La Jolla, Calif. native posted the team's longest hitting streak at 12 games and tied for the team lead with eight multi-RBI games.
Karalus led the team with a 2.25 ERA and 11 saves — the second-most in Bronco baseball single season history — in 2014. Primarily serving as the team's closer, he posted a 6-2 record, struck out 46 batters in 48.0 innings and held opponents to a team-low .206 batting average.
Santa Clara is picked to finish seventh in the 10-team WCC, receiving 38 points. LMU was picked to win the conference with 77 points and six first-place votes. Pepperdine (72 points, three first-place votes) and San Diego (63 points, one first-place vote) round out the WCC's top three. The preseason poll and all-conference teams are voted on solely by the league's 10 head coaches.
BRONCO ROSTER BREAKDOWN
Santa Clara welcomes a large group of newcomers once again in the 2015 season. After bringing in 12 freshmen a season ago, the Broncos added 12 freshmen newcomers alongside two junior college transfers in TC Florentine and Ryan Budnick. The rest of the roster features 13 freshmen (including Mitchell White coming off a redshirt season) 10 sophomores, nine juniors and only three seniors — TJ Braff, Evan Brisentine and CJ Jacobe.
GOOD TO HAVE YOU BACK
The Broncos return three pitchers that each made at least nine starts last season in Jacob Steffens, Steven Wilson and Peter Hendron. Santa Clara's current staff accounted for 40 of last season's 56 starts — then-senior and Friday night pitcher DJ Zapata made the other 16.
Steffens split time as a starter and a relief pitcher in 2014, beginning the season in the four-man starting rotation and returning to the weekend rotation in late April. He went 2-5 with a 3.90 ERA between 16 appearances and nine starts on the season. The Phoenix, Ariz. native posted better than a 3:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio with 43 strikeouts and 13 walks in 64.2 innings. The Broncos won seven straight games when Steffens took the mound at the end of last year's regular season.
Wilson made 11 appearances and 10 starts, serving as Santa Clara's Sunday starter for most of the 2014 season. He went 1-3 with a 4.37 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 55.2 innings. Opponents hit .272 against the Littleton, Colo. native during his freshman season.
Santa Clara also returns its four most-used relievers in 2014 First Team All-WCC Selection Reece Karalus (6-2, 2.25 ERA, 34 appearances, 11 SV), sophomore Jason Seever (3-2, 3.12 ERA, 29 appearances), junior Nick Medeiros and sophomore Kevin George.
IN THE FIELD
Jose Vizcaino Jr. joins sophomore catcher Stevie Berman (.322) and senior left fielder T.J. Braff (.309) as returning starters in the field, all three of whom hit better than .300 a season ago. Berman finished fourth in the WCC with a .443 on-base percentage and was named to the conference's all-freshman team. Braff took over first base in April after an injury to senior Mac Hess, and hit safely in 16 of 20 starts while recording 20 RBIs during that span alongside a spotless 1.000 fielding percentage at first base.
Berman is currently day-to-day recovering from a shoulder injury. Junior Kyle Cortopassi manned the Bronco backstop for all 28 innings in Nashville last weekend.
In addition to a talented freshman class, the Broncos welcome junior center fielder TC Florentine into the mix. The former Edmonds Community College Triton took home 2014 NWAACC Player of the Year and Gold Glove honors last season for head coach Scott Kelly's team.
FRESHMAN CLASS RANKED 64TH BY PERFECT GAME USA
Perfect Game USA revealed its incoming class of 2014-15 College Recruit Rankings in Nov. 2014, and ranked Santa Clara's class 64th of 296 NCAA Division I teams.
The group of 12 Broncos is the highest-rated SCU class since Perfect Game began ranking recruiting classes in 2011. It is also the third recruiting class under current head coach Dan O'Brien.
"From the beginning, our mission in recruiting was to get the right players, not the best players," associate head coach/recruiting coordinator Gabe Ribas said. "That takes seeing a prospect beyond his playing ability and talking with parents, coaches, teachers, peers and guidance counselors to find out what we will get on a day-to-day basis. The biggest mistakes I have made in recruiting are based on solely judging a player on ability."
BRONCO SCHEDULE BREAKDOWN
Santa Clara's non-conference schedule is packed with top opposition in 2014 College World Series Champion Vanderbilt on the road opening weekend, CWS participant TCU on the road April 17-19, super regional participant Stanford (home April 14, away May 5) and regional finalist Cal Poly (away March 3, home April 21). In its last series before West Coast Conference play, Santa Clara hits the road to face Big XII powerhouse Kansas State, who made it to a super regional with a school record 45-win season in 2013.
The Broncos are the only team in the country to play a weekend series against the top two teams in the Collegiate Baseball preseason rankings — No. 1 Vanderbilt and No. 2 TCU.
SEE YOU LATER
Santa Clara hosts 27 games at Stephen Schott Stadium this season, only five of which are played between the 1st and 13th of any given month. 17 of the team's 27 road games are played between the 1st and 13th of any given month.
