March 11, 2001
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara University baseball team earned a sweep of the University of San Francisco winning the three-game series finale over the Dons by a score of 8-1. The Broncos received another strong performance from their starting pitcher Matt Travis (1-5) who earns his first victory of the season. The Broncos record improves to 5-15 and 3-0 in the WCC, while USF falls to 10-9 and 0-3 in the league.
"Certainly we are pleased with opening WCC play with three wins," said head coach Mike Cummins. "As they say, winning is contagious so I hope our guys now know how it feels and we keep playing at a higher level. We had some guys really come through with strong performances this weekend."
The Broncos opened up the scoring in the second with a RBI single by senior Mike Balestreri scoring Matt Miller. Santa Clara added two more runs in the fourth inning when sophomore catcher Jimmy Wallace hit a ground ball through the legs of shortstop Jared Carvalho to score Pat Peavey and John Hilvert. In the fifth inning, sophomore Jack Headley singled to center field. The next batter, Matt Queen, hit his second homerun of the year off USF pitcher Kevin Rose. Queen hit a two-run shot over the left field fence to increase the Bronco lead to 5-0.
Travis was the third straight left-handed pitcher to start for the Broncos in the series. For the third straight game, the starter pitched at least six innings and did not allow more than one run. Travis threw eight innings only allowing four hits and one run to score. The run came in the sixth inning when Taggert Bozied scored on a sacrifice fly hit by Jesse Foppert. Travis pitched seven shut out innings against USF, a team who had previously averaged over five runs per game. As a team, Santa Clara pitchers shut down USF in the series only giving up five runs in three games.
The Broncos added three more runs in the seventh inning. Hilvert hit a RBI double to score Headley. After Miller was intentionally walked, Wallace got his third RBI in as many at bats when he singled in Peavey. The next batter, Balestreri, then hit a sacrifice fly to score Hilvert and to increase the Broncos' lead to 8-1. Freshman pitcher Anthony Rea finished off the Dons in the ninth inning.
Three different Broncos recorded multi-RBI's in the game. Queen, with his two-run homerun in the fifth inning, went 1-for-5 with two RBI's. Wallace went 1-for-3 with three RBI's, and Balestreri was 2-for-2 with two RBI's. Two Broncos recorded multi-hits in the game. Headley scored two runs and went 2-for-4 for the game. Peavey went 2-for-2 on the day, and led all Broncos in batting for the weekend with a .625 average. Armand Gaerlan led the Dons in batting. He went 2-for-4.
Santa Clara is next in action on Tuesday, March 13 when the Broncos take on Columbia at Buck Shaw Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. The Broncos continue conference play at Buck Shaw stadium on Friday, March 16 when they face Loyola Marymount at 7 p.m.
