STOCKTON, Calif. — Santa Clara baseball used clutch pitching and defense down the stretch to halt Pacific's comeback bid in a 3-2 victory Sunday afternoon at Klein Family Field. The Tigers got their leadoff man on base in each of the last three innings, and the Broncos held off the hosts to clinch the win.
The Broncos have won six times in their last seven Sundays overall.
"I'm happy that our guys battled all the way through," associate head coach Gabe Ribas said. "It's good to see our guys put forth such a good effort."
Pacific set the table with two singles to put runners on the corners against Santa Clara starter Jason Seever in the eighth, and the Broncos called on Max Kuhns out of the bullpen. Kuhns issued a pop up to Danny Mayer and struck out Gio Brusa for a pair of unproductive outs, then got Nate Verlin to fly out to left for the final out of the inning.
Lucas Halstead led off the ninth with a single for the Tigers (19-26, 10-11 WCC) and reached second on Louis Mejia's sacrifice bunt. With two outs and Halstead at third, JP Yakel hit a line drive to shortstop and Santa Clara's John Cresto leapt to make the catch and seal the victory. The Broncos (20-25, 7-14 WCC) held the Tigers to 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and did not commit an error in the win.
Seever (W, 6-2) improved upon his team-best record by matching a career high with 7.0+ innings and allowing two earned runs on eight hits with two walks and three strikeouts. The lefty has thrown seven innings in three of his last four starts. Kuhns (SV, 13) has matched the Bronco record for saves in a single season with 13, originally set by Anthony Rea back in 2004.
"That was a great defensive effort," Ribas said. "I can't say enough about the way Jason Seever and Max Kuhns pitched. I thought our guys battled and competed for nine innings."
Santa Clara scored three runs in the first three innings of the series finale. In the second, Ryan Budnick hit an RBI single to center field and Pacific's Blake Barry — making his first start of the series — mishandled the baseball for an error, allowing a second Bronco run to score. TC Florentine stole third with one out in the third for one of the team's four stolen bases and scored on an RBI groundout from Tyler Meditz.
The Broncos plated all three runs against Pacific starter Jake Jenkins (L, 2-3), who pitched 5.0 innings. Relievers Justin Giovannoni and Jordon Gonzalez held the visitors scoreless in the last four frames.
In the fourth, Verlin hit an RBI double with no outs for the Tigers to make the score 3-1 Broncos and put runners on second and third. Seever retired the next three Tigers in order, limiting Pacific to one additional run on Halstead's RBI sacrifice fly.
Santa Clara issued 1-2-3 innings in the fifth and sixth to maintain the 3-2 edge; Seever retired nine hitters in a row through the middle innings. Halstead led off the seventh with a double and three batters later, the Broncos turned a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.
Stevie Berman reached in all four of his trips to the plate with two singles and two walks while Budnick went 2-for-3. JJ Wagner and Halstead hit safely twice for the Tigers.
The Broncos head to Stanford for a 5:30 p.m. matchup on Tuesday before hosting Portland for the final homestand of 2016 next weekend.
GAME NOTES: First pitch was at 1:05 p.m. … time of the game was 2:58 … attendance was 305.
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