April 24, 2005
MORAGA, Calif. - The Santa Clara baseball team dropped an 8-4 West Coast Conference contest at Saint Mary's on Sunday afternoon at Louis Guisto Field. With the loss, SCU is now 18-22 on the season and 4-13 in WCC action. The Gaels improve to 15-23 and 8-13 in conference action.
Saint Mary's took an early lead, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Both Gaels runs were unearned as a two-out error allowed the inning to continue.
The Broncos tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the fifth inning. A leadoff walk to Kevin Drever and a single by Shawn Epidendio started off the frame for SCU. Both runners would advance on a passed ball to put two Broncos in scoring position. After an out, Michael Thompson drove them both in with a double down the left field line.
The Gaels added a run in both the fifth and sixth inning to re-claim the lead. In the fifth, SMC plated one run on a single from Bryan Byrne. A sacrifice fly by Cody Nelson drove in the fourth SMC run of the contest in the bottom of the sixth.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, SMC scored three runs before adding another in the eighth as it pulled ahead to an 8-2 advantage.
Santa Clara added two runs in the top of the ninth inning, but it would not be enough to overcome the SMC advantage. Thompson drove in his third RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly before Dustin Realini drove in another with a single.
Drever led Santa Clara with three hits in the contest. Epidendio also posted a multiple hit performance as he reached base four times in the game. Thompson paced SCU as he drove in three runs.
Starter Kellan McConnell suffered the loss to fall to 2-6 on the season. He allowed six runs, four of which were earned, on 12 hits in 6.1 innings of action.
Santa Clara will wrap up its seven-game road swing at Stanford on Tuesday night with a 6 p.m. contest. The Broncos return home on Friday night to host Gonzaga in the last baseball game at Buck Shaw Stadium. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.
