Aug. 14, 2008
Hungry for Bronco baseball and it's only August? Three Broncos are playing in the prestigious Cape Cod Summer League Championship Series this week. Nate Garcia pitches for the Cotuit Kettleers who face the Harwich Mariners with Bronco teammates Tommy Medica and Steve Kalush in the Harwich dugout.
Fans can follow the series with updates on santaclarabroncos.com and also follow the championship series on capecodbaseball.org.
Medica had the third-best batting average in the league at the end of the regular season and has the top batting average on his team in the playoffs thus far (.333). Kalush was 2-3 with a 2.08 ERA during the regular season. Garcia, on the Kettleers team, was 2-2 with a 4.93 ERA, during the regular season and is expected to start a playoff game.
All three will return for their junior years this season and Santa Clara head coach Mark O'Brien knows this experience will pay dividends both at fall practice and in the spring. "It is great that all three are performing at a high level in such a highly competitive league," said O'Brien. "The three of them are very talented and if they take a good approach coming into next year it will help our team tremendously. It is tough to match the experience they are getting right now. I am very happy for them and they are representing our school and program extremely well."
In a few playoff highlights to get the championship game Kalush came in on relief in the 11th of the 18-inning win against Orleans and allowed one hit in 5⅔ innings of work. Medica singled in the 18th and deciding inning as his team finished off Orleans that inning. The win pushed their team to the League Championship series with Cotuit.
This past season Medica started in all 55 games for the Broncos - 51 as catcher, 2 in left field and 2 as the DH and earned his second All-WCC honor as a unanimous selection. He produced a career-high and team best 29 game hitting streak (Apr. 5-May 20) that included 27 multi-hit games, four home runs and six doubles; and led SCU in on base percentage (.438), fourth in batting average (.342), tied for second in doubles (15) and tied for third in RBIs (44).
Kalush's sophomore year for the Broncos he made 17 appearances, starting in seven games. He finished the year ranked third in wins (5) and batters struck out (61).
Garcia made 14 appearances, starting in 13 game for the Broncos his sophomore year and he tossed two complete games. He finished the year leading the Broncos in innings pitched (86.1), batters struck out (75) second on the team in ERA (3.65), wins (7), ranked second in ERA (3.65) and wins (7). He was named WCC Pitcher of the Week twice during the season and received unanimous All-WCC honors after ranking overall ninth in wins, sixth in strikeouts and tied for second in shutouts.
