Game Notes | Santa Clara | BYU
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Santa Clara baseball plays its final series of the 2015 regular season with a West Coast Conference matchup against BYU Thursday-Saturday at Schott Stadium. On Saturday, the Broncos will honor seniors TJ Braff, Evan Brisentine and CJ Jacobe before the season finale 1 p.m. first pitch.
The Broncos have won seven straight contests, which is the longest winning streak under current head coach Dan O'Brien. Their five-game winning streak in conference play is also a record during O'Brien's tenure. Santa Clara has won nine of its last 11 contests overall, and will enter the weekend with a chance to qualify for the West Coast Conference Baseball Championship.
The Broncos set their offense to the tune of 13 hits, including a pair of home runs, in a 5-1 victory over Portland Friday. Reece Karalus set the tone on the mound by allowing one unearned run in 7.0 innings as part of the series-opening victory. Santa Clara baseball fell behind 2-0 Saturday afternoon before rallying for seven unanswered runs over the last four innings to win 7-2. The Broncos produced their biggest ninth inning of the season with five runs to overturn a 5-3 deficit on their way to an 8-6 win over Portland Sunday. Santa Clara posted its first West Coast Conference series sweep of the season by winning all three games against the Pilots.
Santa Clara can clinch a top four spot in the WCC IF: the Broncos win their last three WCC games, San Francisco sweeps LMU this weekend and Pepperdine wins one of its three games against Gonzaga. The Broncos could also reach the conference championship in a three-way tiebreaker scenario.
SERIES INFO
Game 52: Thursday, May 14, 2015 — 6 p.m. PDT
Game 53: Friday, May 15, 2015 — 6 p.m. PDT
Game 54: Saturday, May 16, 2015 — 1 p.m. PDT
Venue: Stephen Schott Stadium — Santa Clara, Calif.
Live Stats: www.santaclara.statbroadcast.com
Video: portal.stretchinternet.com/santaclara
Audio (Thursday): Same link as video (David Gentile/Collin Baker)
Series Record: 8-8
First Meeting: 1968
2014 Regular Season: SCU won 2 of 3 at Miller Park
5/8/14: SCU 8 - BYU 6
5/9/14: BYU 16 - SCU 2
5/10/14: SCU 5 - BYU 1
PROBABLE PITCHERS
Thursday, May 14
RHP Reece Karalus (3-6, 3.02 ERA) - RHP Brandon Kinser (6-3, 4.14 ERA)
Friday, May 15
RHP Eric Lex (4-4, 5.05 ERA) - RHP Kolton Mahoney (4-6, 4.92 ERA)
Saturday, May 16
RHP Steven Wilson (3-3, 3.77 ERA) - TBA
SENIORS
T.J. Braff has made 171 appearances and 142 starts in his Bronco career, and has appeared in at least 35 games during each of his four seasons on the Mission campus. The Palo Alto native has set personal single-season records in nearly every major offensive category in 2015. He ranks second on this season's Broncos with 31 runs batted in, and has 78 RBIs for his career.
Braff has been a defensive staple for the Broncos, splitting time between first base and the outfield. He has a career .993 fielding percentage in addition to making a number of diving catches in left field this season. On the final day of the 2014 regular season, Braff hit a walkoff RBI single to clinch Santa Clara's spot in the West Coast Conference Baseball Championship, the team's first postseason appearance since 1997.
Evan Brisentine has made 36 appearances and nine starts during his four years with the Broncos. He has pitched in the weekend rotation and in a midweek starter role for Santa Clara in 2015, and has not allowed an earned run in his last 13 and one third innings of work.
This season, the San Ramon native pitched six and a third shutout innings innings of relief with three strikeouts to earn his first career win as the Broncos defeated No. 30 San Diego Toreros 7-1 on March 20 at Schott Stadium. He set a career high seven innings pitched while allowing just one unearned run April 7th against San Jose State and matched the career best mark with seven shutout innings May 5th at Stanford, which helped the Broncos complete their first season sweep of the Cardinal since 1974.
C.J. Jacobe has made 107 appearances and 48 starts during his four years with Santa Clara baseball. The Vacaville native has posted multiple home runs in two of his four years as a Bronco.
Jacobe is one of four Broncos to record a three-RBI game twice in the 2015 season. He finished a triple shy of the cycle by going 3-for-3 with a double, a home run, three RBIs and two runs scored March 7 ak Kansas State. Jacobe came off the bench and went 2-for-2 with his second home run of the season, three RBIs and a run scored March 25 at Grand Canyon.
Jacobe recorded a game-winning, pinch-hit RBI for Santa Clara's first victory of the 2014 season on February 16 against the Nevada Wolfpack at Schott Stadium.
BRONCOS
Reece Karalus makes his 25th appearance and fifth start of the season Thursday night. Karalus earned his first career win as a starter in his 17th career start for Santa Clara Friday afternoon, allowing the unearned run on seven hits with a walk and five strikeouts in 7.0 innings at Portland. He recorded a 1-2-3 frame to start the outing in the first and to end it in the seventh. The North Bend, Wash. native faced more than four batters in a single inning just once as part of the victory. Karalus set a career high with 11 strikeouts April 24 against Gonzaga, and has struck out 57 batters against just nine walks this season. Karalus made one start for the Broncos in 2014. He went 0-9 with a 7.04 ERA in 19 appearances and 12 starts as a freshman in 2013.
Karalus is one of 39 pitchers named to the 11th Annual NCBWA Midseason Stopper of the Year Watch list. He was also named to the list during his sophomore campaign with SCU. He ranks 3rd in program history with 21 career saves and has earned nine of those saves in 2015. Anthony Rea (2001-05) and Mike McDonald (1994-97) share the program record with 25 career saves. Karalus recorded the second-most saves in Bronco single-season history with 11 in 2014, earning First-Team All-WCC honors.
Eric Lex makes his 12th appearance and 10th start of the season Saturday. Lex pitched a career high 7.0 innings and allowed two earned runs on six hits with no walks and two strikeouts for the Broncos to improve to 4-4 on the season Saturday at Portland. Lex retired six of the first seven batters he faced, and sat down seven batters in a row through his departure after the seventh. He did not allow an earned run over an 11.2 inning span March 1 - April 4.
Steven Wilson makes his 13th start of the season Sunday. Wilson allowed four earned runs on seven hits with three walks and six strikeouts in 6.0 innings to finish with a no decision at Portland Sunday. The redshirt sophomore retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced, including back-to-back strikeouts to end the home sixth.He has logged seven quality starts on the season and allowed an earned run or less in four of his 11 weekend starts.
Mitchell White recorded his first two career saves in consecutive days against Gonzaga two weekends ago. White has recorded a win or a save in eight of his last nine outings.
Grant Meylan's 33 walks have eclipsed Santa Clara's leader from last year, the then-freshman Berman who posted 30 for the season. Meylan has already recorded the most walks in a single season since 2009, when Curtis Wagner drew 32. Matt Long drew 36 walks for the Broncos in 2008. Ed Giovanola's single-season record of 55 walks has stood since 1989.
Joe Becht is hitting 17-for-60 (.283) since March 29, after starting the season 4-for-33 (.121).
Stevie Berman has posted multiple hits in five of his last nine games and multiple RBIs in four of his last nine games.
Jake Brodt is on a season-long nine-game hitting streak and Meylan is on a season-long six-game hitting streak.
Jose Vizcaino, Jr. has 17 hits and 11 RBIs in the last nine games.
COUGARS
Dillon Robinson leads the BYU offense with a .362 batting average and is one of seven Cougars hitting better than .300 on the season. Robinson and Colton Shaver are tied for a team-best 39 RBIs, while Shaver has a conference-leading 12 home runs.
Brandon Kinser leads the Cougars with six wins on the season. Mahoney has logged the most innings for BYU with 75 entering the weekend and tops the pitching staff with 80 strikeouts.
BYU started the season 2-10 and is 23-12 in its last 35 games.
