Baseball looks past losses

By Kurt Wagner

If anybody is looking forward to the upcoming three-day holiday weekend, it's the Santa Clara baseball team.

In what was originally one of the Broncos' most anticipated series of the season, Santa Clara was unceremoniously swept in three games by the San Diego Toreros.

Sunday's 22-5 beating at Schott Stadium dropped the team's record to 0-6 in West Coast Conference play and own a 10-16 record overall.

The Broncos were in action again on Tuesday night against non-conference Hawaii and dropped their 10th straight game with an 8-4 loss.

Their last victory was a 16-1 win over Dartmouth on March 22.

Prior to the on-going losing streak, Santa Clara had won seven consecutive games.

'»¿"Tough times will pass, but you've got to be a tough person and overcome some adversity," said Santa Clara head coach Mark O'Brien after Sunday's loss. "You've got to show up and do the things you've been doing and you have to stay the course and hopefully things will turn around."

The Broncos have allowed 61 runs in the past four games, including a season-high 22 runs in each of their losses over the weekend.

With the sweep, San Diego finished the weekend atop the WCC standings at 6-0, one game ahead of Loyola Marymount.

Santa Clara's struggles are due, at least in part, to the loss of All-American catcher Tommy Medica, who sustained a season-ending shoulder injury on March 8 against Oregon. Doctors surgically repaired Medica's separated shoulder on Friday.

"Any time you lose someone like Tommy, it's going to put a huge hole in our lineup," said center fielder Matt Long.

O'Brien said the surgery was successful, and the Broncos look to have Medica back at full strength next season for his senior campaign.

"'»¿He brought a toughness to our lineup every day," said O'Brien. "Every time he got in the batter's box he thought he was better than the pitcher. We have not had that same confidence and toughness since he's been out."

Medica started all 55 games for Santa Clara last season, leading the team with a .438 on-base percentage and batted .342 while hitting safely in 29 consecutive games.

The San Jose, Calif. native and Bellarmine graduate batted a team-high .429 this season before the injury.

'»¿"I'll be with my teammates every step of the way, and watch as our team develops and has a good year," said Medica through a press release last week. "I look forward to an even better year next year."

Junior Geoff Klein moved behind the plate in place of Medica after serving as designated hitter for the team's first nine games. One of the Broncos' few bright spots, Klein has started every game, leads all active Santa Clara players with a .378 batting average and 36 RBI and is tied for the team lead with 3 home runs.

"'»¿I'm just taking it as a challenge and trying to do the best I can to fill that hole," said Klein. "You don't fill that hole totally but I can only control what I can control and try to do the best I can to help this team."

Although Santa Clara lost a solid bat in the middle of their order, O'Brien said Klein's presence and leadership behind the plate has not gone unnoticed.

"'»¿He's emerged as our leader," said O'Brien. "Without question, not even close."

Inconsistent pitching has compounded the Broncos offensive woes despite a core group of young pitchers returning from last year's roster.

'»¿"We just need to put all the pieces together, because if it's not one thing it's the next," said Long. "You know we'll hit well and not pitch very well and then we'll pitch well and then not hit well."

Santa Clara's top three starting pitchers, juniors Alex Rivers and Nate Garcia and sophomore Thain Simon have a combined ERA of 4.52, and have been able to keep the Broncos in games before handing the ball off to the bullpen, said O'Brien.

No other pitcher on the team boasts an ERA below 6.00.

'»¿"When we hand the ball off to our bullpen we'd like to know that they're going to keep the game in hand," said Garcia. "We are not giving up on our bullpen by any means. We still have a lot of confidence in those guys to come into games and be able to shut them down."

Garcia is third in the league in both innings pitched with 49.1 and strikeouts with 53.

In order to gain some momentum, some of the players have been growing mustaches for good luck. Even O'Brien may soon be joining some of his players by putting down the razor.

"Not yet," he said with a laugh. "We'll see. We should probably be worrying about other things than that but you know, maybe that will take their minds off of it and we'll play better."

Contact Kurt Wagner at (408) 551-1918 or jwagner@scu.edu.