March 23, 2010
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Another outstanding pitching performance by Chris Mendoza and 16 hits helped the Santa Clara Broncos beat San Diego State 5-1 Tuesday afternoon.
Mendoza - a true-freshman from San Jose's Branham High School - threw a complete game, striking out five while scattering 10 singles. It was the first collegiate win for Mendoza (1-0) who was sharp last weekend in his starting debut, leaving with a 6-2 lead in the eighth inning against Southern Illinois.
Santa Clara (8-10) salvages one game of its four-game series at San Diego State. The Broncos scored in the second inning on back-to-back doubles by Blake Leyva and Evan Peters.
With the game tied 1-1 in the seventh, consecutive doubles by Curtis Wagner and Tommy Medica off SDSU reliever Matthew McDaniel (0-1) sparked a three-run inning to stake Mendoza to a 4-1 lead.
Leyva drove-in an insurance run in the top of the ninth to make it 5-1. Leyva went 3-for-5 and Wagner finished the day 4-for-5. Medica and Geoff Klein each added two hits.
San Diego State (8-11) just missed a four-game sweep of the Broncos, taking 6-of-8 against Santa Clara in its home-and-home series dating back to last season.
The Broncos will return home and begin a season-long 13-game homestand, beginning Friday, March 26 against Princeton. For tickets or more information please call 408-554-4660.
GAME NOTES: UT Tommy Medica (.400 BA) has extended his hitting streak to a WCC-best 11 games... Medica leads the team in multi-hit games (10) and multi-RBI games (8)... 1B Curtis Wagner (.466 BA) remains the league's top hitter by over 50 percentage points... Not only is Wagner hitting .466 overall, but he is 12-for-22 with RISP and 19-for-36 with runners on base... Four different SCU relievers had scoreless outings in San Diego, including freshman Brock Simon (0-0; 7.75 ERA) who worked three scoreless innings of two-hit ball in Saturday night's opener... San Diego State scored 26 runs in four games, while only registering six extra-base hits... 3B Blake Leyva (.320 BA) started all four games at third base and went 5-for-15 (.333 BA)... Despite taking his first collegiate loss Monday, freshman RH Jon Hughes (2-1; 7.76 ERA) struck out seven in 4 2/3 innings... The Broncos lost two night games at Tony Gwynn Stadium, dropping to 1-7 on the year under the lights.
To view the WCC standings and access a complete report on WCC baseball click here.
