SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Santa Clara baseball jumped out to a four-run lead and used a career effort from starting pitcher Jason Seever to win 4-2 Sunday against No. 24 Notre Dame at Schott Stadium. The Broncos won the final two games of the weekend to claim the season-opening series over the Fighting Irish.
"It's great to get a series win over a very solid, well-coached ballclub, but I'm more excited about how well we competed and executed throughout the weekend," Bronco head coach Dan O'Brien said.
In his first collegiate start, Seever (W, 1-0) threw 5.2 innings and allowed one run on six hits with three walks and a career-best seven strikeouts. The left-hander finished one out shy of matching a career-high 6.0 innings pitched.
"Jason is outstanding in every way," O'Brien said. "This day has been coming for a long time for him, and everyone who knows him knew he was going to be great today. This is just the start for him — he'll keep getting better."
Seever retired the first two batters he faced in each of the first four innings for the Broncos (2-1). He helped his own cause defensively during the game's second at-bat by darting off the mound to make a diving catch on Cavan Biggio's popped up bunt attempt for a spectacular play.
"First-pitch strike was huge … getting ahead in counts was basically the key for me today," Seever said. "I talked to (teammates) that are starting or started last year. (Former SCU pitcher) Reece Karalus told me don't save anything, go out there and give it all you got, and that's exactly what I did."
Santa Clara plated two runs in the first inning, aided by a pair of errors from the Fighting Irish (1-2). Matt Smithwick hit a ground ball that Biggio mishandled at second base, allowing Grant Meylan to score the first run of the contest. One batter later, Jake Brodt laid down a squeeze bunt to score Stevie Berman.
In the Santa Clara second, Kyle Cortopassi pulled a sharp ground ball double down the left-field line and came around to score on a sacrifice fly from Kert Woods. Cortopassi added his second hit of the day on a single up the middle in the fourth inning to drive in Santa Clara's fourth run.
"We were looking to be aggressive early in counts and looking for fastballs. We worked to attack our pitch and get on them early," Cortopassi said. "We have a great group of guys … we're really unified and trying to do something special this year."
Cortopassi and Bronco newcomer John Cresto tied for the team lead with two hits each — on the weekend, Cresto led all Santa Clara batters with five hits. Berman and Brodt both reached base twice with a hit and a walk in the series finale.
Notre Dame's Jake Johnson hit a two-out, RBI single in the sixth to end the Fighting Irish's 15-inning scoring drought and make the score 4-1. The visitors had the game-tying run at the plate in the next at-bat when the Broncos called on Peter Hendron to make his season debut. Hendron issued a fly out on one pitch to retire Biggio and end the inning.
In the Notre Dame eighth, Matt Vierling hit the only home run of the weekend to cut the Fighting Irish deficit to two runs. A walk to pinch hitter Jake Shepski brought the tying run to the plate once again, and Santa Clara's Max Kuhns entered the game and struck out Johnson on four pitches to finish off the frame. Kuhns (SV, 2) pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his second save in as many days.
"We have a lot of work to do to get better, but we showed signs of being a very tough ballclub this weekend, and we want toughness to define our program," O'Brien said.
Santa Clara faces local rival San Jose State on the road next Tuesday at 6 p.m. The Broncos play four games in four days as part of the Jack Gifford Memorial Tournament, opening against UC Davis Thursday at Schott Stadium.
GAME NOTES: First pitch was at 11:01 a.m. … time of the game was 2:31 … attendance was 624 … total opening weekend attendance was 1,831 … the Broncos are 5-1 all-time against the Fighting Irish.
