STOCKTON, Calif. – Santa Clara baseball scored early and padded the lead late to support a tremendous pitching effort in an 8-2 win over Pacific Friday night from Stockton.

The Broncos (16-9, 5-2 WCC) scored in the first and then added two more in the second which was enough for the combination of Cole Kitchen and Nick Sando who fanned a combined 16 Tigers (8-16, 0-7 WCC) on the night. It was the 14th time this year Santa Clara pitching has reached double-digit punchouts.

Kitchen (3-1) picked up the win while tossing 5 innings of two-run ball. The reigning WCC Pitcher of the Week allowed three hits and two walks while striking out six. Sando collected his team-leading third save by pitching a scoreless final 4 innings. He allowed just three hits with no walks and a season-high 10 strikeouts.

All but one Santa Clara position player collected a hit with the top seven in the order all scoring at least one run and six different players picking up an RBI. Michael O'Hara, Coleman Brigman, Matt Jew, Cal Christofori, and Alex Lambeau all collected two hits. Christofori added a pair of RBIs and Efrain Manzo scored twice.

The lone bright spot on offense for Pacific was Telly Hill who finished the night 3-fof-4. His two-run home run in the fifth accounted for all of the Tigers' runs and cut the deficit to 3-2 before the Broncos put up five runs in the seventh to pull away.

Elijah Birdsong started and took the loss. Birdsong allowed three runs, two earned, on seven hits with a walk and six strikeouts to keep his team in the game but Tyler Stout ended up giving up four runs in an inning of work out of the bullpen.

NOTES

• Coleman Brigman extended his on-base streak to 24 games.
• Michael O'Hara extended his hitting streak to nine games.

NEXT UP
The series continues tomorrow at 5 p.m.

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