WATCH | Austin Fisher's First Career Home Run

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Santa Clara baseball edged Stanford 4-2 in a close contest Tuesday night at Schott Stadium. The Broncos have defeated the Cardinal in three straight games dating back to a historic season sweep in 2015.

The Broncos (18-20) also improved to 5-1 in midweek games, including a 4-0 mark at Schott Stadium this year. The Cardinal (19-16) has lost seven of its last eight contests.

"This is our third Tuesday in a row with a win over a very good team," head coach Dan O'Brien said. "These guys know they can beat anybody. I think the challenge is that we've been beating ourselves. We're getting wins because we're taking care of the ball on defense, throwing strikes and not giving away free bases. If we keep doing that, we're going to be fine."

Santa Clara produced the only multi-run inning of the game in the home fifth; Kert Woods hit an RBI single to left field and TC Florentine grounded into a double play to bring in a second run and put the hosts in front 3-1. 

Stanford pulled within a run at 3-2 in the sixth when Quinn Brodey hit the first pitch off the inning off the batter's eye for a home run. In the bottom of the seventh, Austin Fisher hit his first home run at any level of baseball — a solo effort to left field — that gave the Broncos their fourth run of the evening. 

"Coming off of Sunday, we just slowed ourselves down and focused back on the fundamentals," Fisher said. "That's where were at right now, and we want to take it into the weekend."

"Austin is a great ballplayer," O'Brien said. "We've been juggling the lineup quite a bit this year and waiting for people to step up; Austin has done that … I'm not surprised and I'm really happy for him, but I'm more proud that we had somebody step up and decide that they want that spot in the lineup."

Max Kuhns (S, 12) struck out the first and last batters he faced in the ninth inning to leave the potential game-tying run at the plate. The Parker, Colo. native is one save shy of matching Santa Clara's single-season save mark, set by Anthony Rea in 2004. 

Jake Steffens (W, 1-0) pitched 3.0 relief innings and allowed an earned run on three hits with a walk and two strikeouts. The righthander earned his first win in 423 days (Feb. 27, 2015 vs. Eastern Michigan) — he had season-ending Tommy John surgery after four starts last season. 

Travis Howard surrendered only one run in 4.0 innings as the Bronco starter and Nick Medeiros tossed a scoreless eighth for Santa Clara. Howard gave up multiple runs in five of his last six outings.

"I thought Travis was great tonight," O'Brien said. "Sometimes it's easy to forget that these guys are freshman and just starting to play college baseball. When you consider how much faster the game is at this level, I think he continues to get better and better."

TC Florentine opened the scoring for the Broncos with a two-out, RBI double to score Kyle Cortopassi in the first inning. The Broncos plated three runs (two earned) on four hits against Stanford starter John Hochstatter (L, 0-1), who pitched 4.0+ innings. 

Fisher is hitting .500 (7-for-14) in his last five games; he tallied two hits in the victory. Florentine notched his seventh multi-hit game of the month and has 13 RBIs in 15 April contests. Cortopassi singled in the fifth to extend his on-base streak to 10 games. Brodey went 2-for-4 to lead the Cardinal.

"I can feel it in my gut that this team is going to roll," O'Brien said. "We've been waiting to break out all year, and I think the time is now."

Santa Clara and Stanford meet for the second and final time this season May 10 at Sunken Diamond. The Broncos host LMU (22-10, 10-8 WCC) this weekend, beginning with a 6 p.m. first pitch Friday night.

GAME NOTES: First pitch was at 6 p.m. … time of the game was 2:43 … attendance was 331.