Three Late Runs Pushes Baseball Past Sacramento State 4-2

Three Late Runs Pushes Baseball Past Sacramento State 4-2
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Five Santa Clara baseball pitchers held Sacramento State to just four hits while the offense rallied for three late runs in the Broncos 4-2 win on Friday night to take the first two games of the four game series.  
 
Santa Clara (8-3) scored two runs in the seventh courtesy of Jason Dicochea and Ryan McCarthy RBIs to turn a 2-1 deficit into a one run advantage.  The Broncos added an insurance run in the eighth on Connor Henriques sacrifice fly before Ethan Heinrich closed out the game tossing two scoreless innings to pick up his third save of the season.  
 
The seventh inning rally came against Hornets reliever Brady Rodriguez who replaced Parker Brahms to start the inning.  Back-to-back doubles by Coleman Brigman and Dicochea tied the game at 2-all.  Jake MacNichols followed with a single to put runners at the corners with one out and McCarthy's sacrifice fly scored the go ahead run.  
 
Brahms, who started on the bump for the Hornets, cruised through the first six frames allowing one unearned run on five hits with eight strikeouts and did not issue a walk.  He held a 2-1 lead thanks to a two-run home run by Ryan Walstad against Bronco starter Cole Kitchen before exiting.  The home run, which came in the second inning, was the only earned run allowed by the Bronco freshman.    
 
In the fifth, the Broncos cut the Hornets lead in half on shortstop Keith Torres' throwing error with the bases loaded to score Mike Bowes.    
 
Sacramento State (5-4) threatened in the bottom of the fifth putting two runners on against Kitchen but reliever Alex Tisminezky got the final out to escape the inning.  
 
Tisminezky (2-0) got the win after throwing 1 1/3 scoreless innings, while Rodriguez (0-1) suffered the loss.  
 
Nick Sando and Alex Waldsmith came in relief bridging between Tisminezky and Heinrich as the five Bronco pitchers allowed hits to just two Hornet batters.  Walstad had three hits and Steven Moretto had one.  
 
Five of the 10 Bronco hits were doubles including a pair by McCarthy.  
 
NOTES
-Michael O'Hara had his first career plate appearance in the sixth striking out against Brahms.   
 
NEXT UP
The Broncos and the Hornets play at 2 p.m on Saturday.  
 
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