April 24, 2010
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - St. Mary's picked up its second straight win over Santa Clara, 5-4, in the rivalry series between the two Bay Area West Coast Conference schools at Stephen Schott Stadium.
St. Mary's was able to hold off a pair of Santa Clara rallies in the late innings. Tommy Medica's two-out RBI-single in the eighth got the Broncos within a run and SCU was a hit away from tying the game in the ninth.
With Medica at third base in the eighth, SMC head coach Jedd Soto chose to lift closer Brandon Berl in favor of freshman lefty Dylan Chavez who retired Curtis Wagner on a groundout and subsequent close play at first base which could have tied the game.
SCU then put runners on base in the ninth, but St. Mary's (13-20-1; 4-4 WCC) was able to escape with the win and even its conference record. Gael starter Kyle Barraclough (5-3) worked into the sixth, limiting the Broncos to three runs to go down as the pitcher of record for SMC.
"St. Mary's made five errors tonight and we had 15 hits," said Santa Clara head coach Mark O'Brien. "Stating the obvious, we just left too many guys on base."
Berl, Chavez and Alex Schmarzo combined to allow one run over the final 3 1/3 innings. Chavez got Berl out of the eighth-inning jam. Schmarzo came on in the ninth and allowed a leadoff single to Ryan Rieger and walked Rhett Nelson with two outs but fanned Lucas Herbst on a full-count fastball to claim his team-leading third save.
Santa Clara (14-21; 1-9 WCC) left 15 runners on base. The Broncos lost their sixth straight. Santa Clara's offense was able to generate base runners in every inning. Lucas Herbst tripled and scored in the first, and Matt Paradise and Blake Leyva both scored in the second. Medica's RBI-single in the eighth accounted for the lone run for SCU after that.
Senior starter Alex Rivers (3-6) pitched seven complete innings, surrendering five runs on nine hits while striking out seven.
"I thought Alex (Rivers) gave us a chance to win," said O'Brien. "He definitely did his job. We just didn't come up with a hit when we needed to."
The three-game series concludes Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. Freshman right-hander Chris Mendoza is scheduled to be the starting pitcher for Santa Clara.
