SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Santa Clara baseball takes an early-season three-game winning streak into the Jack Gifford Memorial Tournament this weekend. The Broncos play four games in four days against UC Davis, Utah Valley, Saint Joseph's and Michigan at Schott Stadium.
This weekend's tournament is played in honor of the late Jack Gifford, a longtime supporter of several California collegiate baseball programs.
Tournament Info
vs. UC Davis Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016 | 6 p.m. PST | Game #5 | Home Game #4
vs. Utah Valley Friday, Feb. 26, 2016 | 6 p.m. PST | Game #6 | Home Game #5
vs. Saint Joseph's Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016 | 5 p.m. PST | Game #7 | Home Game #6
vs. Michigan Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016 | 6 p.m. PST | Game #8 | Home Game #7
Santa Clara, Calif. | Schott Stadium
Live Stats (all games): santaclara.statbroadcast.com | Live Video (SCU games): TheW.tv
The tournament consists of nine games in all, including:
Michigan vs. Saint Joseph's | Friday 10 a.m.
Saint Joseph's vs. UC Davis | Friday 2 p.m.
UC Davis vs. Utah Valley | Saturday 1 p.m.
Saint Joseph's vs. Utah Valley | Sunday 10 a.m.
Utah Valley vs. UC Davis | Sunday 2 p.m.
SCU Series Records
vs. UC Davis: 41-30-1
vs. Utah Valley: 2-0
vs. Saint Joseph's: Never Met
vs. Michigan: 0-2
Probable Starters
SCU RHP Peter Hendron (0-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. UCD RHP Zach Stone (0-1, 31.50 ERA)
SCU RHP Mitchell White (0-1, 3.18 ERA) vs. UVU RHP Danny Beddes (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
SCU RHP Steven Wilson (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. SJU RHP Ryan Otero (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
SCU LHP Jason Seever (1-0, 1.59 ERA) vs. MICH LHP Evan Hill (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Tickets: Single-game options and season tickets are available for Santa Clara games. For non-Santa Clara games, single-game neutral tickets can be purchased at the ticket office right outside the main gates to Schott Stadium. Click here to purchase tickets (link to single-game) For information, call (408) 554-4660 weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. or email BroncoTickets@scu.edu. Schott Stadium opens one hour prior to first pitch. The ticket office is also open one hour prior to the start of the game.
Parking: Baseball parking has changed for the 2016 season. Parking is now available in the Guadalupe lot, adjacent to 455 El Camino Real. The Guadalupe lot is reserved beginning 60 minutes before game time through the end of the event for free parking. Baseball parking is no longer allowed in the lot behind Schott Stadium's left field wall. Overflow parking is available in the Leavey Center lot, except for Saturday's games, as there is a men's basketball game that night in the Leavey Center. Attendants will be on hand to direct fans to other lots around campus. Spectators that plan to arrive more than an hour prior to game time on weekdays are encouraged to purchase a parking permit for the Leavey lot. Leavey lot parking is free on weekends. ADA parking is available in the lot directly in front of the main gates; there is no general public parking in this lot. Follow signs for parking instructions.
Game Day Promotions
Friday: The Country Mega Ticket giveaway series continues with two tickets to see Darius Rucker at Shoreline Amphitheater on July 15. Raffle is open to all Santa Clara students in attendance wearing SCU gear. Each piece of Santa Clara University clothing and/or accessory worn is equivalent to one raffle entry. Enter to win by visiting the marketing table located in the entrance plaza.
Saturday: Bronco Baseball Bingo. Pick up a baseball bingo card from the marketing table and follow along while the Broncos are at-bat for your chance to win a prize.
Last Time Out
Santa Clara belted three home runs and totaled six extra base hits to down local rival San Jose State 7-4 Tuesday night at Municipal Stadium. The Broncos outscored the Spartans 5-0 in the last four innings to overcome a two-run deficit for their third consecutive win.
Wilson Named Rawlings WCC Pitcher of the Week
Santa Clara redshirt junior Steven Wilson has earned the first Rawlings West Coast Conference Pitcher of the Week honors of the season for the second year in a row. Wilson struck out seven batters in 6.0+ shutout innings and did not issue a walk in Santa Clara's 2-0 victory over No. 24 Notre Dame on Saturday night. The Littleton, Colo. native retired 11 consecutive Fighting Irish hitters during a stretch between the second and fifth innings. He faced no more than one batter above the minimum in each of his six complete innings.
Broncos in the Field
Freshman John Cresto leads the Broncos with seven hits and has hit safely in all four games of his collegiate career. He scored the only two runs of the contest in Santa Clara's 2-0 victory over Notre Dame on Saturday.
2016 Preseason All-WCC selection Stevie Berman has also hit safely in each of the season's first four games. Berman and Cresto hit back-to-back home runs in the ninth inning Tuesday.
Grant Meylan made a pair of outfield assists in the opening weekend series: the right fielder doubled a runner off second base after a sliding catch on Friday and threw a runner out at home on an attempted tag up during Saturday's game.
Jake Brodt leads Santa Clara with three RBIs on the young season. He hit a 405-foot home run to open the scoring against the Spartans on Tuesday.
Broncos on the Mound
Peter Hendron struck out one batter in 2.0 relief innings of Sunday's victory over Notre Dame. As a sophomore in 2014, Hendron led the Broncos with six wins.
2016 Preseason All-WCC selection Mitchell White threw 5.2 innings and allowed three runs (two earned) on four hits with three walks and a career-high seven strikeouts in his first collegiate start Friday night.
Jason Seever made his first career start Sunday, and allowed an earned run in 5.2 innings while striking out a career-high seven batters to earn the winning decision.
Max Kuhns earned his first collegiate save Saturday night. The Parker, Colo. native allowed a leadoff single in the eighth and retired six straight batters to close out the win. He retired all four batters he faced on Sunday to earn his second save of the season and make it 10 straight outs through the end of the weekend. Kuhns has picked up a save in each of Santa Clara's three victories this season.
Tournament Field
UC Davis enters the weekend at 1-4; the Aggies won one of four games against Portland to open the season and fell 5-2 at Stanford on Monday.
Utah Valley enters the weekend at 3-2, and scored a 12-9 victory over No. 5 Oregon State at the Surprise Tournament on opening weekend.
Saint Joseph's begins its season this weekend in Santa Clara. The Hawks went 21-28 overall and 11-12 in Atlantic 10 play last season.
Reigning NCAA Tournament participant Michigan (No. 21 – NCBWA) swept Canisius in a four-game series on opening weekend — posting two shutouts and outscoring the Golden Griffins 27-5.
Jack Gifford
This weekend's Jack Gifford Memorial tournament is played in honor of the late Mr. Gifford, an avid baseball fan and longtime supporter of the Santa Clara program.
Mr. Gifford, a Los Angeles native and 1963 UCLA alumnus, played baseball and studied electrical engineering in college. He started his career in the semiconductor industry in 1964 at Fairchild Semiconductor, where he became the first Director of Analog Products. Four years later, he co-founded AMD (Advanced Micro Devices), serving as the company's Vice President of Marketing and Planning. He later served as the CEO of Intersil prior to co-founding Maxim Integrated Products in 1983, where he served as CEO and President until his retirement in 2007.
Under his leadership, Maxim grew to more than $2 billion in annual sales. Mr. Gifford, better known as "Jack," is considered one of the founding fathers of the analog microchip industry. His "Maxim Principles" continue to define the company's culture to this day.
Mr. Gifford was an avid baseball fan and a longtime, generous supporter of several collegiate programs. For years, his donations aided the teams at Santa Clara, San José State, Stanford, Cal and UCLA. Those contributions funded equipment, uniforms, travel, and the Jack and Rhodine Gifford Hitting Facility, a 10,500 square foot state-of-the-art hitting and practice facility located at UCLA's Jackie Robinson stadium.
While serving as CEO of Maxim, Mr. Gifford provided internships for several Bay Area collegiate baseball student-athletes. Over the years, dozens of them played for his summer baseball team, the Maxim Yankees.
Jack and Rhodine Gifford were married for more than 48 years and had three daughters: Laural, Tracy and Jacquelyn. Mr. Gifford passed away in 2009 at the age of 68. Mrs. Gifford continues to support Bronco baseball through donations.
Notre Dame Series Notes
- The Broncos won two of three games against the Fighting Irish to improve to 5-1 in the series.
- Santa Clara held Notre Dame scoreless in a 15-inning span from the ninth inning Saturday through the fifth inning Sunday.
- The Broncos scored all six of their runs in the fourth inning or earlier, and opened the scoring in the first inning on Saturday and Sunday.
- Santa Clara's pitching staff posted a 1.33 ERA and held Notre Dame to a .202 batting average. The former is good for 17th in the NCAA after opening weekend.
- There were 13 total runs scored, the fewest for the first three games of a Santa Clara season since 1994 (16 runs through three games).
2016 Bronco Schedule Notes
- Santa Clara defeated a ranked opponent on opening weekend for the second straight season, after winning a Saturday contest at No. 1 Vanderbilt last year.
- Santa Clara plays seven of its first eight games at home; the only road game in that stretch is Tuesday's contest at San José State.
- The Broncos have 13 games in 17 days to start the season.
- Santa Clara is slated to play four-game weekends four times during a five-weekend span from the end of February through the end of March.
- The Broncos face 2015 WCC postseason champion Pepperdine at home and 2015 WCC regular season champion San Diego on the road during consecutive weekends in April.
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Go Broncos!
