SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara softball starts West Coast Conference play this week with three home games vs. LMU. The Broncos and Lions will square off Thurs., April 2 at 4 p.m. and Fri., April 3 at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. Last week Santa Clara dropped a doubleheader to UMKC to move to 10-23 on the season.
"We want to take what we did well during the non conference part of our season and build off of that," said Santa Clara head coach Lisa Mize. "We'll take whatever we need to improve on and focus on a clean start. We want to keep to the task of getting better every day. During this part of the season we'd like to see some of those one run games go our way. We've played hard up to this point and want to put it all together for a conference season that looks promising."
Santa Clara is hitting .266 (235-882) as a team with 42 doubles, four triples, and 18 home runs. They post a 4.56 ERA with 87 strikeouts and 82 walks in 218.0 innings.
Ellie Fisher leads the team in hitting with a .354 (35-99) batting average and a .471 OBP thanks to a team-best 20 walks. She also leads the way with 14 steals in 17 tries. Fisher has scored a team-high 20 runs to go with a double, a triple, and eight RBI. Breezy Bernard is hitting .337 (35-104) and leads the team with 12 doubles while tying for the team-lead in RBI with 18. She has scored six runs and added a home run. Jordan Newell is batting .315 (29-92) with four home runs, four doubles, 18 RBI, and 13 runs scored. Gianetta France is tops on the Broncos with six home runs and has knocked in 18 runs. She has added four doubles and 12 runs scored.
Ciara Gonzales leads Santa Clara in wins (8), ERA (3.45), innings (101.1), appearances (25), starts (17), complete games (8), strikeouts (37), and is tied for the lead with one shutout. Briana Rios has thrown 49.2 innings with a 4.23 ERA. Rios has appeared in 15 games and made seven starts with one complete game shutout. McCall James has pitched in 18 games and made six starts with two complete games and one shutout. She also has a save in 49.0 innings with 27 strikeouts. Micaela Vierra has appeared in 10 games and made three starts. She has thrown 18.0 innings and struck out 13.
LMU is 18-21 on the season. The Lions are hitting .289 (277-958) as a team with 57 doubles, one triple, and 34 home runs. They post a 3.96 ERA with 110 strikeouts and 95 walks in 246.0 innings. They are outscoring opponents 182-177 on the season.
"LMU is an offensive ball club," said Mize. "To beat them we'll need to have our pitching keep us in the game and we need the defense to play well behind them. We also need to score some runs which will mean having quality at bats."
Amanda Dirks leads the team in hitting with a .386 (39-101) average. She has hit four home runs and leads the team with 28 RBI while adding eight doubles and one triple to go with 25 runs scored. Stephanie Maciel is batting .314 (33-105) with a team-hight eight home runs and 26 runs scored. Maciel has added six doubles and 17 RBI. Alex Finie is the only Lion to play in and start all 39 games. She is hitting .359 (46-128) with four home runs, nine doubles, 24 RBI, and 23 runs scored.
Rachael Farrington leads LMU in ERA (3.22), wins (13), losses (10), appearances (30), starts (24), complete games (15), shutouts (4), saves (2), innings pitched (139.1), and strikeouts (59). Stephanie Crist has thrown 60.1 innings in 19 games and eight starts. She has tossed two complete games and one shutout while going 4-8 with a 4.41 ERA. Crist has fanned 28 against 22 free passes. Andy Wellins has a 5.60 ERA to go with a 1-3 record in 17 appearances and six starts with one complete game. She has struck out 22 and walked 29 in 45.0 innings.
