SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Santa Clara baseball dealt a three-hit shutout to the Cal Poly Mustangs and brought home three runs to win its first midweek game of the season 3-0 Tuesday night at Baggett Stadium. Bronco starter Kevin George set career-high marks with 7.0 innings and seven strikeouts in the victory.
The Santa Clara win snaps a four-game losing streak against Cal Poly dating back to 2013. The Broncos last won in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 21, 2012, during head coach Dan O'Brien's first season and fourth game at the helm of the program.
"We take pride in grinding out wins," O'Brien said. "I thought we did a great job of that tonight. We haven't played well at SLO in recent years so today's goal was to show up ready to compete from the first pitch to the last. The guys did a great job and were dialed in all night. I'm proud of them."
George (W, 1-0) earned his second career win and first victory as a starter for the Broncos (7-5), after pitching in relief for his first six outings of the season. The Mustangs (2-7) put only two runners aboard with less than two outs against the Bronco starter over his 7.0 innings, and both reached by way of an error. The Petaluma, Calif. native retired eight in a row to start the game and faced four or less batters in each frame of his winning effort, in which he allowed only two Mustangs to reach safely.
"I really have no words to explain how proud I am of Kevin," O'Brien said. "He's come so far, both on and off the mound, and he deserves that outing tonight. He was dominant."
TC Florentine led off the second inning with a walk and advanced to third on a wild pitch followed by a passed ball against Mustang starter Andrew Bernstein (L, 2-1) with Joe Becht at bat. Becht hit an RBI groundout that drove Florentine in to give the Broncos a 1-0 lead. Bernstein left the game after his third walk of the inning, and Danny Zandona got Kyle Cortopassi to fly out to right to end the second. Bernstein pitched 1.2 innings and allowed an unearned run on one hit with three walks and one strikeout.
The Broncos plated their second run of the game on a passed ball in the fourth that allowed Florentine to score for the second time. TJ Braff led off the seventh with a triple — the only extra-base hit of the evening — and Jake Brodt followed with a single to drive in the Bronco senior and make the score 3-0. All nine Bronco starters reached base safely Tuesday night.
Reece Karalus took over for George in the eighth and struck out the side in order to keep the three-run edge in tact. Karalus (SV, 4) picked up his fourth save of the season by recording the final two outs of the ninth with runners on first and second and the potential game-tying run at the plate. The Bronco closer struck out five batters and combined with George to limit the Mustangs to one hit through the first out of the ninth.
"Those outings by Kevin and Reece were great for the rest of our staff to watch," O'Brien said. "That's a good offense we just faced and our guys competed with presence and confidence all night. That's the key to success on the mound, and those two were outstanding."
Santa Clara heads to Kansas State for a weekend series beginning Friday at Tointon Family Stadium with a 3 p.m. CST (1 p.m. PST first pitch).
GAME NOTES: First pitch was at 6:01 p.m. … time of game was 2:42 … attendance was 525 ... Santa Clara's last shutout victory was on May 14, 2013 in a 3-0 win at Stanford.
