SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Santa Clara baseball picked up its 10th home win of the season in a 2-1 victory over crosstown rival San Jose State Tuesday night at Schott Stadium. Evan Brisentine threw a career-best 7.0 innings as the Broncos snapped a three-game losing streak.
The Broncos have won their last five midweek games dating back to March 3.
"It was great to get the win, but it was more important that we came out and played good, solid baseball," head coach Dan O'Brien said.
Brisentine (W, 2-2) allowed an unearned run on five hits with no walks and no strikeouts to pick up his second win of the season. He faced one batter above the minimum in his last five innings, and allowed only two hits during that span for the Broncos (15-16). After a bunt single from Dillan Smith in the third, the Bronco starting pitcher retired nine straight batters through the second out of the sixth inning.
"Evan has turned into a veteran," O'Brien said. "I always talk about how important it is for our guys to be mature more than talented. His maturity showed through tonight."
The Spartans (8-24) opened the scoring in the second inning with an RBI sacrifice fly to center field from Joe Stefanki. Ozzy Braff, the younger brother of Santa Clara's T.J. Braff, led the visitors with a 2-for-4 effort Tuesday night.
Santa Clara pulled even in the fourth on an RBI double down the left field line by Kyle Cortopassi to drive in Jake Brodt. Following the double, TC Florentine reached on an eight-pitch walk to put runners on first and second, and the Spartans called on Matt Brown to relieve starting pitcher Jonathan Hernandez. Brown struck out Max Kuhns and Austin Fisher to retire the side. Hernandez threw 3.1 innings and allowed an earned run on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts.
Fisher hit a one-out double down the right field line as the first Bronco batter to face Josh Goldberg in the seventh inning. The Bronco shortstop reached third on a wild pitch and was driven in on an RBI sacrifice fly to left field by Grant Meylan to give the Broncos their first lead of the evening at 2-1. Goldberg (L, 0-1) allowed a hit and an earned run to the three batters he faced.
"The defense did a great job of keeping us in the game, they kept making outs," Brisentine said. "I knew the offense was going to come through. They kept grinding and their at-bats got better and better all night."
Mitchell White took over for Brisentine in the eighth, and retired three straight batters after a leadoff single to keep the Broncos in front. Reece Karalus struck out Ozzy Braff to start the ninth inning and allowed only a two-out walk to Alec de Watteville. Karalus (SV, 9) now owns 21 career saves for the Broncos, which puts him four shy of the school record 25.
"We had a conversation about letting Brisentine keep going … he was having some pretty quick innings," O'Brien said. "We needed to get Mitch and Reece throwing again — it was good to get them back out there and I'm not surprised that they did a great job."
Cortopassi and Fisher each doubled for the Broncos, while TC Florentine reached base twice on a single and a walk in the victory.
Santa Clara heads to Malibu for a Friday-Sunday series against the Pepperdine Waves. First pitch times are 3 p.m. Friday, followed by 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Game Notes: First pitch was at 6:02 p.m. … time of the game was 2:24 ... attendance was 227.
