Posted: Apr 12, 2019
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara baseball was one strike away from taking the series opener against Pacific, however, defensive miscues allowed the Tigers to score two runs each in the ninth and 10th innings and fell, 9-8 on Friday night.
The Broncos (7-24, 1-9 WCC) committed five errors in the game that led to eight unearned runs. Despite that, Santa Clara led 7-5 heading to the top of the ninth behind four home runs, two by Jake MacNichols and one each by Ryan McCarthy and Andre Nnebe.
Broncos reliever Travis Howard (0-2), who had retired eight straight Pacific (18-16, 5-8 WCC) batters in relief including five in a row on strikeouts, was set to close out the game in the ninth. The right-hander struck out the Tigers leadoff batter James Arakawa but walked Alex LeForestier to bring the tying run to the plate in Pacific's leading hitter, James Free. However, Howard was up to the task striking out Free for the second out. The next batter, Bryce Kirk reached base on a catcher's interference to put the runners at first and second. Howard got ahead of Tyler Ryan and needing just one more strike to close out the game, Ryan drove home the tying runs on a double that Cam Allie nearly came up with on a diving play.
In the 10th, Howard seemingly got out of the inning with a fly out to left field but Ryan McCarthy dropped the ball to allow Keaton Glover to score from second that gave the Tigers an 8-7 lead. The error extended the inning as the Tigers pushed across another run, the eighth unearned run against the Broncos pitching staff, to go up 9-7.
The Broncos got a gift run of its own in the bottom of the 10th to trim the deficit to 9-8 when Tigers first baseman Nate Verlin dropped the potential game ending grounder from the second baseman allowing Allie to score. With runners in scoring position, Tigers reliever Nick Swanson (1-0) struck out McCarthy to close out the wild game.
NEXT UP
The two teams square off on Saturday at 1 p.m.
TICKETS
Single-game tickets priced at $10 are available. Click here to purchase online or contact the ticket office in Leavey Center weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. at (408) 554-4660 or BroncoTickets@scu.edu. Group discounts are also available through our ticket office sales and service consultants. Gates to Stephen Schott Stadium, as well as its ticket booth, are open one hour prior to the start of the game.
PARKING
Parking is available in the Guadalupe lot, adjacent to 455 El Camino Real. The Guadalupe lot is reserved beginning 60 minutes before game time through the end of the event for free parking. Baseball parking is no longer allowed in the lot behind Schott Stadium's left field wall. Overflow parking is available in the Leavey Center lot. Spectators that plan to arrive more than an hour prior to game time on weekdays are encouraged to purchase a parking permit for the Leavey lot. All SCU lot parking is free on weekends. ADA parking is available in the lot directly in front of the main gates; there is no general public parking in this lot. Follow signs for parking instructions. Click here for a campus parking map.
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