SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Santa Clara baseball held two early leads before San Francisco recorded a four-run fifth inning on its way to a 6-3 win Sunday afternoon at Schott Stadium. The Dons won on both Saturday and Sunday to claim the first West Coast Conference series of the season.

Trailing 2-1 in the fifth, San Francisco loaded the bases against Santa Clara starter Jason Seever (L, 2-1) with no outs, and Nico Giarratano hit an RBI sacrifice fly to tie up the ballgame. The Dons (7-15, 2-1 WCC) took the lead when Riley Helland grounded into a fielder's choice to second base; Santa Clara's Austin Reyes threw home and Stevie Berman applied the tag to Harrison Bruce a split second too late.

With two outs and runners on first and second, the Broncos (8-10, 1-2 WCC) called on Travis Howard to pitch to Allen Smoot, who hit a two-run double to right center that made the score 5-2. Both runs were charged to Seever — the Bronco starter surrendered five earned runs in 4.2 innings. Howard pitched the remaining 4.1 innings and gave up an earned run on four hits. 

John Cresto doubled in the home fifth to put Broncos on second and third with one out. Stevie Berman followed with a fly out to center field and Matt Sinatro threw out Kyle Cortopassi on an attempted tag up at the plate to end the frame. 

James Kannenberg (W, 2-1) held the Broncos to two runs (one earned) and struck out four in a career-high 7.0 innings. TC Florentine gave Santa Clara a 1-0 lead in the second on an RBI groundout, and after the Dons tied the game on Sinatro's RBI double in the third, Berman hit a two-out, RBI single in the bottom half of the inning to make the score 2-1.

Giarratano added an RBI single in the ninth to give the visitors the biggest lead of the series by either team at 6-2. Ryan Budnick hit a long sacrifice fly to the warning track to score Florentine as part of Santa Clara's ninth inning comeback bid. 

Berman and Cresto each tallied two base hits for the Broncos; seven different Santa Clara batters recorded a hit in the loss. Giarratano, Sinatro and Beau Bozett each finished with two hits for the Dons, while Giarratano and Smoot had two RBIs apiece.

The Broncos return to the diamond Thursday for the start of a four-game series at Hawaii. First pitch is scheduled for 9:35 p.m. PDT.

GAME NOTES: First pitch was at 1 p.m. … time of the game was 2:28 … attendance was 295.

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