STOCKTON, Calif. — Santa Clara baseball set the table early and often Saturday night, but stranded 12 runners on base and 11 men in scoring position in a 6-3 loss to Pacific at Klein Family Field. The Broncos left multiple runners in scoring positions five times.
The Tigers (19-25, 10-10 WCC) have won the first two games of the West Coast Conference set the claim the series over the Broncos (19-25, 6-14).
Santa Clara left runners in scoring position in six of their nine offensive innings, including runners on second and third five times. The Broncos went scoreless in four of those frames: the third through fifth innings as well as the ninth, when John Cresto singled and Stevie Berman walked before the team made three straight outs to end the contest.
The Broncos were 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position. They put a runner on second base with less than two outs five times.
Pacific broke a 2-2 tie to take its first lead in the sixth. Lucas Halstead hit a long home run to left field for the Tigers and the Broncos answered with an RBI single from Tyler Meditz to pull even in the seventh.
After the stretch, Halstead struck again with a two-run single off of Nick Medeiros that went just fair down the first-base line. Pacific added its sixth and final run on a wild pitch later in the inning.
The game's decisive run was charged to Jake Steffens (L, 1-1), who retired two batters and put two men on in the seventh before the Broncos went to Medeiros. Mitchell White struck out nine batters in 6.0 innings and allowed three earned runs on six hits with two walks as the Bronco starter. The redshirt sophomore has fanned 9+ batters eight times in 2016.
Pacific starter Shelby Lackey pitched 3.2 innings and gave up two runs (one earned) on four hits with two walks and three strikeouts. Bryce Lombardi inherited a pair of runners with two outs in the fourth, and loaded the bases with a walk before striking out Cresto to end the inning. Lombardi and Vince Arobio (W, 1-1) each pitched 2.2 relief innings, and Arobio held the Broncos scoreless while striking out three.
The Broncos opened the scoring in the first on a two-RBI single to right from Meditz that brought home a pair of runs. Meditz drove in three runs on the night and went 2-for-4. Cresto, Berman and TC Florentine each tallied two hits in the loss. Halstead topped all batters with three RBIs and Kevin Sandri tallied his second two-hit game of the series.
Santa Clara and Pacific wrap up the set Sunday at 1 p.m. Jason Seever (5-2, 4.87 ERA) makes the start for the Broncos against Jake Jenkins (2-2, 3.34 ERA).
GAME NOTES: Time of the game was 3:07 … attendance was 1,052 ... Cortopassi alked in the fourth inning to extend his on-base streak to 16 games ... Cortopassi's streak is the longest for the Broncos this season ... White's nine strikeouts brought his season total to 101 ... he is the first Bronco since 2010 to top 100 strikeouts in a single-season (Nate Garcia - 112).