SANTA CLARA, Calif. – San Diego erased a deficit with a six-run outburst in the sixth inning and then held off a late rally from Santa Clara baseball to earn an 8-6 victory in Sunday's series finale.
Adam Kerner, Chris McCready and Cody Jefferis each knocked in a pair, and Paul Kunst had three hits for the Toreros (28-20, 12-12 West Coast Conference) who won two of three from the Broncos.
Grady Miller (5-2) earned the win despite yielding three runs in three innings of work. Nate Walker secured his first save with a scoreless, but eventful, ninth inning.
With one aboard for the Broncos (11-34, 4-17), Walker replaced Jake Miller and promptly struck out Ryan McCarthy and Tony Boetto, but Connor Henriques was hit by a pitch and Cam Allie reached on a fielding error by Jefferis at shortstop to load the bases.
The Toreros, who had four errors but none leading to a run, appeared to be out of the jam when with two outs Gavin Maloney floated a short pop in foul territory, but third baseman Ripken Reyes dropped the ball. However, Maloney was unable to take advantage as he flied out three pitches later to end the game.
San Diego tied the game at 3-all in the sixth by scratching out a run before chasing a pair of Santa Clara relievers. Max Jung-Goldberg singled, and after moving to second, came around on a pair of wild pitches from McGarry who replaced Alex Tisminezky to start the inning.
Alex Reelfs replaced McGarry later in the inning and surrendered a two-run single to Kerner.
Jefferis broke it open with two outs when his line drive to right center field was unable to be caught by a diving Andre Nnebe and rolled to the wall for a two-run triple and 8-3 lead for the Toreros.
The Broncos got three runs back in the eighth inning highlighted by Maloney, who pinch hitting for Blake Faddoul smacked a bases-loaded double to the right center field gap off Jake Miller, plating Boetto and McCarthy.
The bases were loaded again after Nnebe was hit by a pitch, but Jake Miller induced a long flyout from Jason Dicochea to end the threat.
McGarry (0-3) took the loss for the Broncos after only getting one out and surrendering four earned runs. Brandon Buckley started and pitched two innings.
Boetto and Jake MacNichols each scored twice for Santa Clara.
Josh Hendrickson started for San Diego and allowed three runs in four innings.
Boetto and Henriques each had an RBI during the fourth when the Broncos erased a 1-0 deficit with three runs.
NEXT UP
The Broncos begin a stretch of four in a row on the road on Tuesday when they face Stanford. First pitch is at 6:05 p.m. Santa Clara returns to WCC play on Friday when it opens a three-game series with Saint Mary's.
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