Baseball draws even on road trip

By Philip Keck

During a weekend of low scores and tight games, Santa Clara found themselves on flip sides of the result, narrowly beating or falling to the Anteaters of UC Irvine by one run.

The series began with sophomore Chad Fillinger facing off against Anteater Paul French. Both pitchers threw well, going a combined 14.1 innings and giving up only seven hits. The difference was that while Fillinger walked only one, French sent four men to first on bases-on-balls.

In the eighth French walked junior second baseman Jack Headley who advanced to third on a double by senior third baseman Pat Peavey. Irvine brought in reliever Jon Koller who promptly balked Headley home from third, scoring the first run of the game.

Senior pitcher A.J. Ampi then loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the inning as the Anteaters threatened to score. Fortuitously, Ampi forced the Irvine batter to ground into an inning-ending double play, preserving the lead into the ninth.

Ampi got the first batter in the ninth to ground out before giving up a single to Chris Miller. The hit brought senior closer Grant Feichtmeir into the game for the Broncos.

Feichtmeir forced the first batter he faced to ground out to third, but Miller advanced to second on the play. The next Anteater hit sharply to Headley at second base in what would have been the game-ending play if not for a wayward throw by Headley.

With runners on first and second, the next Irvine batter hit a slow roller down the third base line beating the throw from Peavey and scoring both base runners ending the game 2-1 in favor of the Anteaters.

Game two of the series found sophomore John Redmond battling with Sean Tracey of the Anteaters. Again both pitchers threw quality games for their team and it came down to the Broncos holding onto a one-run lead in the bottom of the ninth.

This lead was plenty as Feichtmeir closed the door on the Anteaters, striking out the side and earning his second save of the season.

"It was a huge rebound win for us after losing a heart-breaker the night before," sophomore first baseman Kellan McConnell said. "We faced some good pitching but we battled well as a team and were able to pull it out thanks to our stellar pitching. Redmond, Ampi and Feichtmeir were all awesome. We are going to keep improving as the season moves on."

Game three of the series was cancelled due to wet weather.

Santa Clara continues their season this Friday against Stanford. They play a three-game series in which the Saturday game is to be played at Buck Shaw at 1:00 p.m.