Posted: May 08, 2019
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara baseball travels to Saint Mary's in the penultimate series of the season beginning Friday at Louis Guisto Field.
The Broncos and Gaels will play a trio of day games with the first pitch of the series set for 3 p.m. on Friday and continuing on Saturday at 1 p.m. and wrapping up on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Following the final road series of the season, the Broncos will host West Coast Conference leader BYU in the season finale, May 16-18, with Senior Day ceremonies preceding the last game.
Santa Clara (11-35, 4-17 WCC) at Saint Mary's (27-19, 12-9 WCC)
Games #47-49
Moraga, Calif. | Louis Guisto Field
All-Time Series: Santa Clara leads the series 162-121 dating back to 1883.
PROBABLE STARTERS
Friday, May 10 • 3 p.m. PT
Santa Clara TBA vs. Saint Mary's TBA
Saturday, May 11 • 1 p.m. PT
Santa Clara TBA vs. Saint Mary's TBA
Sunday, May 12 • 1 p.m. PT
Santa Clara TBA vs. Saint Mary's TBA
LAST TIME
Seven Santa Clara pitchers combined to fan 12 Stanford hitters in a 5-1 loss to the second-ranked Cardinal in the final midweek game of the season on Tuesday.
Andre Nnebe put the Broncos on the board first with an RBI single in the top of the third but the Cardinal answered in the home half of the inning with two runs. Christian Robinson went 4-for-4 on the night as his first RBI single tied the game up at 1-1 and each subsequent RBI hit extending Stanford's lead. Robinson finished with a game-high three runs batted in.
There were 18 hits in the game, 12 by Stanford and six by Santa Clara, with all but one hit were singles.
Starter Brandon Buckley and reliever Alex Tisminezky struck out three Cardinal batters each to lead the team.
ABOUT SAINT MARY'S
Saint Mary's is led by head coach Eric Valenzuela who is in his sixth year at the helm with a career record of 172-153 entering the weekend series.
The Gaels are 12-9 in WCC play this season sitting in fifth place of the conference standings, but have played one less series than the third place LMU and San Francisco who are 14-10.
SMC will be playing its final home series of the 2019 campaign against the Broncos where they are 19-3 on the season.
Offensively, the Gaels boasts the highest batting average in the league (.286) and are led by league leader Bryce Willits' .376 average. Joe Vranesh tops the team in home runs (12) and RBIs (50).
On the mound, SMC has a 3.96 ERA, good for third in the conference. Tyler Thornton, Carlos Lomeli and Ken Waldichuk have each started 10 games or more. Thornton leads the team with eight wins and a 1.98 ERA, striking out 76 in 59 innings.
Closer Michael Hobbs has six saves with a 2.97 ERA.
Defensively, the Gaels have committed 37 errors in 46 games.
