Baseball moves up the ladder

By Philip Keck

Bronco baseball came back after dropping the series opener against Loyola Marymount to emphatically win the series and ascend to second place in the West Coast Conference Coast division, putting a division title within their grasp.

The first game of the series had bright beginnings for Santa Clara, as the Broncos were able to score early in the first on a sacrifice fly by junior centerfielder Jack Headley. With this lead, junior starting pitcher Joe Diefenderfer began his day.

Diefenderfer, in an uncharacteristic day, repeatedly struck the Lions in the bat as he gave up six earned runs on six hits and only went two innings. Bronco firemen senior A.J. Ampi and later freshman Thomas Van Buskirk came in to attempt to put out the hot offense of the Lions, but they were tagged for a combined eight runs, seven earned.

The Bronco offense got a little steam into it as they scored three more runs but unfortunately Santa Clara ran out of innings to mount a full comeback and lost 14-6.

Game two of the series witnessed the Broncos follow the lead of junior catcher Jim Wallace and junior pitcher Matt Travis. Travis pitched eight strong innings in his last start versus Portland, but ended up with the loss.

"I was very [angry] with the final outcome of the game," Travis said after his last start. "[I] would have rather pitched poorly and won."

Travis did not pitch poorly this game and came away with the victory, putting his record at 5-2.

Santa Clara's offense broke the game open in the second inning with a single by Wallace, who was later pushed to second on a double from Diefenderfer. With a walk to junior right fielder Alex Anderson the bases were juiced for freshman leadoff man Ryan Chiarelli who was strategically hit by a pitch, scoring Wallace.

"It would have been nice to be able to hit the ball, so I could have avoided the bruise," Chiarelli said. "[Though] either way I am happy."

Bronco offense continued the following inning as, with two runners on, Wallace came up again and pounded a homerun. He went on to knock in four RBIs on the day as the Broncos won 6-3.

The rubber match of the series saw the Broncos combine superb pitching from sophomore John Redmond with outstanding offense as the Broncos won the game 17-1.

The Broncos' offense was started, naturally, by Wallace as he smashed a two-run homerun over the centerfield wall for his third homer of the week, a feat that would earn him WCC Player of the Week honors. Wallace has ten homers on the year.

Pitching was also hot for the Broncos as Redmond went eight full innings, giving up only one run as the Lion bats fell limp.

With these two wins the Broncos jumped from fourth to second, a half-game behind Pepperdine in the WCC Coast Division.

Santa Clara dropped a make-up game to St. Mary's Tuesday night 3-8. The Broncos waited through an hour rain delay to squeeze the game in. Diefenderfer suffered another rough outing giving up four runs in five innings. The Broncos' offense was supplied by junior A.J. LaBarbera, who went 3-for-4, and junior David Mandley, who hit a pinch-hit two-run homerun in the seventh.

The Broncos have a chance to gain some ground on the Waves. Santa Clara was swept by Pepperdine at the end of March in at the Waves home in Malibu. The three-game series will start on Friday night at 6 p.m. The next two games will be afternoon matinee games at 1 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.