SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Santa Clara baseball opened up a West Coast Conference series against the Portland Pilots with a 9-5 victory Friday night at Schott Stadium. Bronco closer Max Kuhns made history in the win by earning his 14th save of the year, the most by a Bronco pitcher in single-season history.
The Parker, Colo. native broke Anthony Rea's record of 13 saves in a season, which stood since 2004.
"Every day I walk through the halls and see photographs of the Broncos playing the (San Francisco) Giants, the black and white photos," Kuhns said. "It's a great honor to be in the record books here at Santa Clara, especially in a program with so much history."
Kuhns (SV, 14) inherited bases loaded with no outs in the eighth inning as the Broncos (21-26, 8-14 WCC) led the Pilots (17-30, 3-19 WCC) 8-3. Santa Clara recorded outs on the next three plays, including an inning-ending strikeout, and limited Portland to two additional runs. Kuhns struck out two in 2.0 innings and did not allow a batter to reach safely in his outing.
"My advice to anyone going into battle is to take Max with you," head coach Dan O'Brien said. "Talk about foxhole-worthy. The guy just flat out competes every day and deserves all of the recognition he gets for it."
"I think there has definitely been a learning curve from the beginning of the season and I think I've grown as a pitcher," Kuhns said. "It's a lot easier with a great defense behind you and great guys that love you every second of the way."
Santa Clara took command of the game by scoring four runs in the seventh inning for an 8-2 advantage. John Cresto hit a two-run homer well past the left-field wall and Kert Woods added an RBI triple to complete the team cycle. The Broncos finished with three doubles, two triples and a home run in the victory. Cresto made it a three-RBI night on a sacrifice fly to center in the eighth.
Bronco starter Steven Wilson struck out nine batters to set a new season high and match his career-best performance. He pitched 6.0 innings and gave up two earned runs on five hits with three walks. Wilson recorded four straight swinging strikeouts to cap his outing.
The Pilots kept pace on the strength of solo home runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Ryan Barr hit a one-out homer to left in the fourth and Eric Sapp led off the fifth with a homer to right. Starter Jordan Horak (L, 1-7) allowed four earned runs on 10 hits with four walks and eight strikeouts in 5.0 innings.
All nine Broncos hit safely in the win and seven batters notched multiple hits. Fisher scored a game-high three runs for the hosts. Santa Clara sent at least seven batters to the plate in half of its offensive innings.
The Broncos and Pilots meet for Game 2 of the set Saturday night at 6 p.m. Mitchell White (2-6, 3.79 ERA) makes the start for Santa Clara against Davis Tominaga (4-8, 4.19).
GAME NOTES: Time of the game was 3:18 … attendance was 359.
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