Baseball Comeback Bid Falls Short in Series Opener Against Portland

PORTLAND, Ore. – Christian Peters tossed eight scoreless innings and Ben Patacsil drove in two runs as Portland held off a ninth inning rally by Santa Clara baseball for a 3-2 win in the series opener on Friday night.

Trailing 3-0 in the ninth, Jake MacNichols blasted a two-run home run off Portland closer Eli Morse to cut the lead to one.  Tony Boetto singled and pinch run by JonJon Berring who stole second to get the tying run in scoring position but he was left stranded after Morse fanned Matt Jew.

Peters (4-2) threw 114 pitches and struck out 11 without issuing a walk to pick up the win.  Eli Morse gave up two runs but picked up his sixth save of the season.

Jake Tsukada went 2-for-4 and Chad Stevens had an RBI for Portland (11-9, 4-0).

Santa Clara (7-14, 0-4) starting pitcher Russell Grant (0-3) was cruising through the first four innings allowing just one hit and striking out six but ran into trouble in the fifth.  In a scoreless ball game up to that point, the Bronco southpaw allowed three singles to load the bases and was replaced by Alex Reelfs.

Reelfs struck out the first batter he faced for the second out of the inning, however he walked Stevens for the first run and gave up a two-RBI single to Patacsil.

The Broncos threatened in the top of the eighth on back-to-back singles with two outs but Peters got Coleman Brigman to fly out.

Mike Bowes had a pair of leadoff singles in the third and the sixth innings but each time, Peters induced a double play to face the minimum three batters in the inning.

Bowes finished 3-for-3 and Jason Dicochea went 2-for-4.