Baseball drops first two, but finishes well against Nevada

By Tom Schreier

Riding Tommy Medica's fifth inning grand slam, Santa Clara won game three of their opening series against the Nevada Wolf Pack at Stephen Schott Stadium after dropping the first two.

The Broncos lost on Opening Day in a 4-2 pitchers' duel between senior Nate Garcia, who has started in the team's opener the last two years, and Nevada's Beau Witsoe.

Garcia was in control until the fourth inning when Wolf Pack junior Brock Stassi drove Garcia's first pitch past the right field fence, putting Nevada ahead 2-0.

However, the veteran Garcia appeared unfazed by the home run and responded by striking out the side to end the inning.

"I'm able to bounce back," Garcia stated confidently after the game. "It's easier for me; I've been there before."

In the sixth inning, junior college transfer Garnett Yrigoyen hit a ground ball directly at Evan Peters, the Broncos' second basemen who played with Yrigoyen at San Joaquin Delta College last year. Peters could not handle the ball and was charged with an error.

"Peters might be one of the best defensive second basemen I've been around and it's his first game," Head Coach Mark O'Brien said of the junior's mishap. "That happens, so I'm not overly concerned about it at all."

Nonetheless, the error put a man on, and after Garcia walked the next batter, he was replaced with fellow senior Steve Kalush. The change did not clot the bleeding and both Yrigoyen and Cullen Mahoney scored.

Santa Clara started the second game with hot bats, scoring five runs in the first two innings behind freshman Pat Stover's three-run blast in the first and Medica's two-RBI double in the second.

However, the Wolf Pack roared back in the top of the third, scoring four runs to take a 5-4 lead into the fourth inning.

"We need to have some shut down innings," O'Brien said after seeing his early lead fade away. "When we score, we got to go out there and throw strikes and play defense."

Sophomore outfielder Lucas Herbst brought the game within one after stealing third and then running home on an off-target throw.

With the score 8-7 Wolf Pack in the top of the seventh, Nevada senior Brett Hart was called out at the plate after he collided violently with Santa Clara catcher Geoff Klein.

"I never saw the guy," said Klein. "He rung my bell. I'll be honest."

Klein came back into the game immediately after the collision, only to realize that the umpires had overturned their original decision and counted the run.

Things unwound from there, as the next batter hit a three-run homer to right field en route to a 15-9 Nevada win.

Santa Clara brought their bats early in the third game as well, scoring eight runs in the first three innings.

With ample run support, redshirt freshman pitcher Jon Hughes went six innings, shutting down Nevada in all but the third.

"It was fun," Hughes said of his first collegiate start. "I felt (really) confident with the guys behind me. I was really confident going out there knowing I had their defense behind me."

Redshirt junior Tommy Medica went 1-7 in the first two games but broke out in the series finale with a grand slam in the bottom of the fifth.

"What (O'Brien) preaches about -- it actually works," says Medica, who hit his first career grand slam after recovering from shoulder injury last year. "I got a ball up and it left."

"It's always good to win on Sunday, no matter what the situation is," said O'Brien after the 15-4 victory. "We'll see what Houston presents itself with, but we're excited to go out and play a good team."

Santa Clara faces the University of Houston this weekend.

Contact Tom Schreier at tschreier@scu.edu or (408) 551-1918.