Feb. 10, 2007
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Five quick runs in the first three innings of Friday night's baseball game between Santa Clara and San Diego State forced the Broncos onto their heels, and proved too much to overcome in a 7-4 setback to the Aztecs. A slow start which saw the Broncos held hitless for the first four-plus innings allowed the Aztecs to build the early 5-0 lead and snap SCU's five-game winning streak.
Santa Clara (5-3) will look to even the series Saturday afternoon in the 1 p.m. contest. The final game of the series is set for a 1 p.m. first pitch on Sunday.
Carl Bacon went 3-for-4 at the plate Friday night while Nathan Faulkner had a pair of hits and drove in three of SCU's four runs.
Matt Wickswat took the loss after giving up six runs on four hits and walking three in five innings. SDSU's Brit Hume struck out five Bronocs in six-plus innings of work to get the win.
A two-out rally in the Aztec first allowed them to open up a 3-0 lead. After Wickswat retired the first two batters he faced, he walked the following two, and the passes came back to haunt the Broncos as the next batter, Nick Romero, hit his first home run of the year down the right-field line. Romero's homer ended up being the only extra-base hit of the game for either team, which combined for 13 hits altogether Friday.
The Aztecs got two more in the third, as Frank Lonigro's RBI single and Romero's sacrifice fly plated two more. Romero went 1-for-3 on the day with four RBIs to pace the Aztecs.
After the teams traded runs in the fifth, SCU cut the lead to 6-3 in the seventh as Faulkner's bases-loaded single plated Matt Long and Gabe Alcantar. But SDSU reliever Shane Kaufman came in for Hume at this point and retired pinch-hitter Donald Brandt and Brady Fuerst to end the threat.
San Diego State scored again in their half to make it 7-3, and despite the Broncos loading the bases with none out in the ninth, they could only get one run in on an RBI groundout from Faulkner.
