Posted: Mar 26, 2018
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara baseball travels to Nevada for a non-conference game against the Wolf Pack on Tuesday at Don Weir Field at Peccole Park. It is the first midweek game for the Broncos since Nevada visited Schott Stadium back on Feb. 27 and third overall on the season where Santa Clara is 2-0, beating San José State and Nevada.
Santa Clara (14-7, 3-3 WCC) is coming off a weekend series against West Coast Conference foe Saint Mary's, losing a series for the first time since the season opening series against Boston College. Since then, the Broncos had won four consecutive series against the likes of Wake Forest, Utah, Sacramento State and San Diego.
Playing a schedule front loaded with home games, Tuesday's tilt will mark just the seventh game the Broncos have played on the road this season where they are 4-2. Santa Clara has played 15 games at home, winning 10 of them.
Series Information
Game #22
Reno, Nev. | Don Weir Park at Peccole Park
All-Time Series: Santa Clara leads 85-49-2, last played in 2016
Probable Starters
Tuesday, March 27 • 2 p.m. PT
SCU TBA vs. Nevada TBA
Solid Start
•Santa Clara is off to a 14-7 start, its best start since the 2012 season when it went 13-3.
•The Broncos won four consecutive series (2-1 series win over Wake Forest Feb.23-25; 3-0 sweep over Utah March 2-4; 3-1 series win over Sacramento State March 8-11; and 2-1 series win over San Diego March 16-18) before losing the last series against Saint Mary's (March 23-25).
•On the season, the Broncos are 10-5 at home and 4-2 on the road.
•The Broncos are 4-0 in extra inning games this season with three of them coming off in walk-off fashion (Feb. 24 vs Wake Forest in 14 innings; March 4 vs Utah in 12 innings; March 8 vs Sacramento State in 10 innings, March 10 at Sacramento State in 10 innings).
•Bronco pitching staff has a cumulative 3.65 ERA with 13 pitchers seeing action on the mound.
Among Conference Leaders
•Jake Brodt leads the West Coast Conference in RBIs with 28 and is tied for first in home runs with seven.
•Joe Becht is tied for the conference lead in triples with three and leads the conference in stolen bases with seven.
•John Cresto is third in the conference in home runs with five despite missing six games.
•Penn Murfee has the conference's third best ERA at 1.71 and Alex Waldsmith is seventh at 2.10.
Streaks
•Joe Becht has reached base safely in all 21 games this season.
•Santa Clara had won six consecutive one-run games before losing to Saint Mary's, 6-5, on March 24.
•John Cresto hit a home run in four consecutive games, all solo shots, from Feb. 23 - 27. He hit one in each game of the Wake Forest series as well as in the midweek game against Nevada.
•Closer Eric Lex recorded a save in three consecutive games from Feb. 27 - March 4.
Captains
•Sixth-year senior right-handed pitcher Steven Wilson and senior first baseman Jake Brodt were named captains for the 2018 Santa Clara squad.
Preseason Accolades
•Senior first baseman Jake Brodt and junior third baseman John Cresto were named preseason All-West Coast Conference. Last season, Brodt was named first team All-WCC with Cresto being named honorable mention All-WCC.
Brodt's Two Grand Slams In One Inning
•Brodt hit two grand slams in the seventh inning on Feb. 17 against Boston College, becoming just the seventh Division I player to accomplish the feat since the NCAA began keeping records in 1957. He is the first to do so since 2000 when T.J. Soto of Louisiana Tech did it against Western
Kentucky.
•Brodt's first grand slam came with the Broncos trailing 9-7 in the seventh inning and put them up for good. His second grand slam came with the Broncos up 16-9. In the first inning, Brodt hit a sacrifice fly for the first RBI of the game and in the sixth, Brodt hit a solo home run to finish the game 3-for-5 with three home runs and 10 RBIs.
•The Huntington Beach, California native's two grand slams in an inning was featured on ESPN's SportsCenter and was named NCBWA National Hitter of the Week and Rawlings West Coast Conference Player of the Week.
In Season Accolades
•Jake Brodt has twice been named the WCC Player of the Week this season on Feb. 19 after his two grand slam in an inning game and a month later on March 19 after going 5-for-14 with three doubles, two home runs and drove in seven runs against San Diego while playing first and third base.
Firsts
•Sixth-year senior right-handed pitcher Steven Wilson made his first appearance out of the bullpen since 2014 in the season opener against Boston College (Feb. 16). He made first start of the year a week later against Wake Forest (Feb. 23), picking up the win/
•Wilson, redshirt sophomore right-handed pitchers Travis Howard and Freddie Erlandson returned to action in the season opening series against Boston College after missing all of last season due to injuries.
•Junior right-handed pitcher Luke Martin-Resnick and sophomore Alex Waldsmith each made their first career starts in the season opening series against Boston College (Feb. 16 & 17)
•Senior outfielder Anthony Geremia made his first career start at center field on Feb. 17.
•Erlandson was the pitcher on record in Rusty Filter's first win as Santa Clara head coach on Feb. 17.
•Sophomore Jason Dicochea hit his first collegiate home run vs San Jose State (Feb. 20).
•Fifth-year senior Penn Murfee picked up his first career save against San Jose State (Feb. 20) dating back to his days at Vanderbilt. Four days later, Murfee got his first career win against Wake Forest (Feb. 24) shutting out the Demon Deacons in the last five innings of the 14th inning walk-off win by the Broncos.
•Junior Austin Reyes hit his first career homerun, a three-run shot, against San Diego (March 16).
•Senior Joe Becht had his first multi home run game against San Diego (March 18), hitting two solo shots.
•Sophomore Andre Nnebe made his season debut against San Diego (March 16) returning from an injury.
First-Year Players
•Freshman right-handed pitcher Cade Negley made his Bronco debut when he came in relief on opening day (Feb. 16) pitching an inning and giving up a hit and striking out a batter.
•Negley got his first win as a Bronco on March 4 vs Utah, pitching the last five innings in the 12th inning walk-off win.
•Negley picked up his first Bronco save against Sacramento State (March 9) pitching the last four innings to close out the game.
•Freshman catcher Tony Boetto got a single in his first two at-bats on Feb. 17. He also made his first career start against San Jose State (Feb. 20) behind the dish.
•Penn Murfee, a fifth-year senior transfer from Vanderbilt made his Bronco debut in relief on Feb. 17.
•Freshman RHP Kent Morrison and LHP Eric Madric made their Bronco debuts in relief on Feb. 25 against Wake Forest.
•Freshman Cory Moore made his Bronco debut on March 4 in game one of the doubleheader against Utah.
Hit By Pitch
•On Feb. 17, Boston College hit 10 Bronco players, tying an NCAA Division I record along with Baylor vs. TCU, March 6, 2012; Saint Joseph's vs. Fordham, April 5, 2009; Washington vs. Rice, May 22, 1998.
•Seven Broncos were hit in an inning (in the seventh) of the Feb. 17 game, breaking the NCAA Division I record (Previous record: 6—Hawaii vs. Hawaii Hilo, Feb. 8, 1998 (eighth inn.)
•Santa Clara is 17th in the nation (out of 297) in being hit by a pitch with 41. Florida A&M is first with 60.
ABOUT NEVADA
•The Wolf Pack are under the direction of third-year head coach T.J. Bruce.
•Nevada was picked to finish fourth in voting of the seven league coaches in the preseason.
•Nevada (12-8, 7-2 Mountain West) begins a four-game homestand starting with Tuesday's game against Santa Clara . The Wolf Pack will then host UNLV for a three-game Mountain West conference series.
•Seniors Mark Nowaczewski and Grant Fennell were named to the Mountain West Coaches Preseason team.
•As a team, Nevada is batting .273 with five hitters batting over .300, led by Fennell with a .338 average.
•The Wolf Pack post a team ERA of 4.36.
